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DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
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We 





THE 
PRACTICAL COMMENTARY 


on the 


New Testament 


Edited by 


W. Robertson ‘Nicoll 
M.A., LL.D. 





The 


PRACTICAL 


COMMENTARY 
On the New Testament 


Edited by 


W.ROBERTSON NICOLL, LL.D., D.D. 
Editor of ‘‘The Expositor’s Bible”’ 


Volume I. Colossians and Thessalonians, 

JosrpH Parxer, D.D. 
Volume II. Ephesians, JosepH Parker, D.D. 
Volume III. Peter, J. H. Jowett 
Volume IV. Revelation, C. ANDERSON Scott 


Others to be announced. 


These volumes are the first to be announced of a 
great new undertaking similar to the universally 
known Expositor’s Bible. It will be under the direc- 
tion of the editor of that great work, Dr. W. Robert- 
son Nicoll, editor of the British Weekly, and its 
volumes will be the work of the foremost living theo- 
logians. Thoroughly alive to the necessity of taking 
advantage of every help that modern scholarship 
offers, this commentary will at the same time retain 
a healthy conservatism of judgment, and its field of 
usefulness will therefore be as large as its great fore- 
runner, “ The Expositor’s Bible.” 


Every volume of this set will be printed on spe- 
cially made paper, handsomely and strongly bound in 
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Price per volume, $1.25, Net 





THE EPISTLES 
OF ST. PETER 


By the Rey. 
J. H. JOWETT, M.A. 


Author of “Apostolic Optimism,” etc. 


“ 


NEW YORK 
A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON 
3 & 5 Wesr 18th Srreet, near 5th AVENUE 
1906 








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oil 
CONTENTS 
nd 
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 
CHAP. VERSE PAGE 


I, 3-5. Tue PossIBivities AND DYNAMICS OF 


THE REGENERATE LIFE . = - 1 
I, 6,7. Sorrowrut, YET aLways Resoicine . 11 


I. 8,9. A Tworotp RELATIONSHIP AND ITS 


Fruits . : : : . 24 
I. 13-16. Brine FasHionepD 4 “ a o ) oft 
I. 17-21. Tue Howrness or THE FatTHer . Pee 


I, 22-25. Tue Creation or COuvLturE AND 


AFFECTION 2 ‘ 5 i a4 D6 


II. 1-10. Tue Livine Stones AND THE SPIRITUAL 


House . : - - - 5 On 


JI. 11-17, Tue Miytstry or Sreemty Benaviour 78 
v 


ere Ee 


CHAP. VERSE 


II. 21-25. 
III. 1-8 
8 ae os 
TI. 8-15. 
III. 18-22. 
IV. 1-6. 
IV. 7-11 
IV. 12-19 

Vv. 1-7 


CONTENTS 
THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST : ~ 
WIvES AND HUSBANDS - = = 


“Be PiriroL” (“ TENDERHEARTED”) . 


CHRIST SANCTIFIED AS LorD e e 


BrinciIna us To Gop . - a ' 


THe SUFFERING WHICH MEANS TRIUMPH 


Gerting READY FOR THE END . ‘ 


Tue Fiery TRIAL i A ‘ ‘ 


TENDING THE FLOCK , C ° 5 


THrRoucH ANTAGONISMS TO PERFECTNESS 


PAGE 


90 


102 


114 


126 


138 


150 


161 


173 


181 


193 


CONTENTS 


THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


CHAP, VERSE 
I. 1,2. lLaserty! Equatiry ! FRATERNITY ! 
I. 1-4. Tue Curistian’s Resources ° 
I. 5-9. DiLicENcE 1n THE Spirit , : a 
I. 12-15. Tue Sanctirication or THE Memory. 
I, 16-18. Tue TransFicurED JEsus . = . 
I. 19-21. Tse Mysrery or THE PropHet . . 
Pi 1, DESTRUCTIVE HERESIES . . . 
II. 20,21. Worst THAN THE First. . ° 
III. 3,4,8,9. Tue LetsurELINEss oF Gop : ° 
Ail. 10-14. Preparine ror THE JUDGMENT . - 
III. 18. . Growrne In Grace . . ° é 


557A 


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237 


249 


334 





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THE POSSIBILITIES AND DYNAMICS OF 
THE REGENERATE LIFE 


1 PETER i. 3-5 


Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a 
living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and 
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who by 
the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation 
ready to be revealed in the last time. 

How easily these early disciples break into 
doxology! Whenever some winding in the 
way of their thought brings the. grace of 
God into view, the song leaps to their lips. The 
glory of grace strikes the chords of their hearts 
into music, and life resounds with exuberant 
praise. It is a stimulating research to study the 
birthplaces of doxologies in the apostolic writ- 
ings. Sometimes the march of an argument is 
stayed while the doxology is sung. Sometimes 
the Te Deum is heard in the midst of a pro- 
cession of moral maxims. The environment of 
the doxology varies, but the operative cause 
which gives it birth is ever the same. From 


fs 


2 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


the height of some ascending argument, or 
through the lens of some ethical maxim, the 
soul catches a glimpse of the “riches of His 
grace,” and the wonderful vision moves it to 
inevitable and immediate praise. I am not sur- 
prised, therefore, to find the doxology forming 
the accompaniment of a passage which con- 
templates the glory and the privileges of the 
re-created life. It is a Te Deum sung during 
the unveiling of the splendours of redeeming 
grace. Let us.turn our eyes to the vision 
which has aroused the grateful song. 

Verse3 | Blessed be the God and Father . . . who begat 
usagain.” “ Begat again.” That is one of the 
unique phrases of the Christian vocabulary. It 
is not to be found in systems of thought which 
are alien from the Christian religion. Itis not to 
be found in the vocabulary of any of the modern 
schools which are severed from the facts and 
forces of the Christian faith. The emphasis 
of their teaching gathers round about terms 
of quite a different order, such as culture, 
training, discipline, education, evolution. The 
Christian religion has also much to say about 
the process of evolution. It dwells at length 
upon the ministries of “ growth,” “training,” 
“increasing,” ‘ putting on,” “perfecting.” But 
while it emphasises “growth,” it directs our 
attention to “birth.” While it magnifies the 


CHAPTER I. 3-5 3 


necessity of wise culture, it proclaims the 
necessity of good seed. So while the Bible 
lags behind no school in urging the importance 
of liberal culture, it stands alone in proclaiming 
the necessity of right germs. You cannot by 
culture develop the thorn-bush into a ladened 
vine. You cannot by the most exquisite dis- 
cipline evolve “the natural man” into the 
“measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ.” If we had merely to do with per- 
_ verted growths, then the trainer and pruner 
might twist the crooked straight. But we are 
confronted with more than perverted growths; 
we have to do with corrupt and rotting seed. 
If all we needed was the the purification of 
our conditions, then the City Health Department 
might lead us into holiness. But we need more 
than the enrichment of the soil; we need the 
revitalising of the seed. And so the Christian 
religion raises the previous question. It begins 
its ministry at a stage prior to the process of 
evolution. It discourses on births and genera- 
tion, on seeds and germs, and proclaims as its 
primary postulate, “Except a man be born 
again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
God.” 

Now, man is not enamoured of that dogmatic 
postulate. It smites his pride in the forehead. 
It lays himself and his counsels in the dust. 


4 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


It expresses itself in an alien speech. Men are 
familiar with the word “educate”; the alien 
word is “regenerate.” Political controversy has 
familiarised them with the word “reform”; the 
alien word is “transfigure.” They have made 
a commonplace of the word “organise”; the 


alien word is “vitalise.” They have made 
almost a fetish of the phrase “moral growth” ; 
the alien word is “new birth.” And so we 


do not like the strange and humbling postulate ; 
but whether we like it or not, the heart of 
every man bears witness to the truth and 
necessity of its imperative demand. Man be- 
comes incredulous of the necessity of the new 
birth when he surveys the lives of others, but 
not when he contemplates his own. We gaze 
upon the conduct and behaviour of some man 
who is dissociated from the Christian Church, 
or who indeed is hostile or indifferent to the 
Christian faith, We mark the integrity of his 
walk, the seemliness of his behaviour, the 
purity of all his relationships, the evident lofti- 
ness of his ideals, and we then project the 
sceptical inquiry, Does this man need to be 
begotten again? I do not accept one man’s 
judgment as to the necessity of another man’s 
regeneration. I wish to hear a man’s judgment 
_concerning himself. I would lke a man to 
be brought face to-face with the life of Jesus, 


CHAPTER L 35 (8) 


with all its searching and piercing demands, 
and with allits marvellous ideals, so marvellously 
attained, and I would like the man’s own judg- 
ment as to what would be required before he 
himself, in the most secret parts of his life, is 
clothed in the same superlative glory. I think 
it is impossible to meet with a single uncon- 
verted man who does not know that, if ever 
he is to wear the glory of the Son of God, and 
to be chaste and illumined in his most hidden 
thoughts and dispositions, there will have to 
take place some marvellous and inconceivable 
transformation. Let any man gaze long on 
“the unsearchable riches of Christ,” and then 
let him slowly and deliberately take the in- 
ventory of his own life, and I am persuaded he 
will come to regard the vaunted panaceas of 
the world as altogether secondary, he will rele- 
gate its vocabulary to the secondary, and he 
will welcome as the only pertinent and adequate 
speech, “ Ye must be born again.” 

i Into what manner of life are we begotten 
again? What is the range of its possibilities, 
‘and the spaciousness of its prospects? The 
apostolic doxology winds its way among a 
wealth of unveiled glories. 

“ Blessed be the God... who begat us again Verse 3 

unto a living hope.” It is a hope affluent in 
life. It is a vivifying hope. There are hopes 


6 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


that are inoperative, ineffective, uninfluential. 
They generate no energy. They impart no 
power to work the mill. But the spiritual hope 
of the redeemed is living and life-creating, ope- 
rating as a vital stimulus upon the consecrated 
race. How the Bible exults in the use of this 
great characteristic word: “ Living Bread!” 
“Living Water!” “ Living Fountains!” “ The 
Living God!” The word conveys the suggestion 
of superabundant life, exuberant energy, an over- 
flowing vitality. It quickens the sentiments. “ We 
rejoice in hope.” ‘The dispositions dance in the 
radiant light! Jt vitalises the thought. The mind 
which is inspired by the glorious expectation is 
grandly secure against the encroachment of the 
evil one. Hope-inspired thought is its own de- | 
fence. It energises the will. The great hope feeds © 
the will, vivifies it, makes it steadfast and un- | 
movable. Into all this powerful hope are we 
begotten again by the abundant mercy of God. 
Verse4 ‘“‘ Begat us again ... unto an winheritance.” 
With our regeneration we become heirs to a 
glorious spiritual estate, with all its inexhaust- 
ible possessions and treasures. How the apostles 
roll out the New Testament music by ringing 
the changes upon this eagerly welcomed word! 
“Heirs of salvation!” “Heirs of the king- 
dom!” ‘Heirs together of the grace of life!” 
“Heirs according to the hope of eternal life!” 


CHAPTER I. 3-5 7 


The apostles survey their estate from different 
angles, that they may comprehend the wealth 
of the vast inheritance. With what fruitful 
words does the Apostle Peter characterise the 
nature of these possessions! It is an inherit- 
ance “incorruptible.” It is beyond the reach 
of death. No grave is ever dug on this estate. 
It is an inheritance “undefiled.” It is beyond 
the taint of sin. No contamination ever stains 
its driven snow. The robes of the glorified are 
whiter than snow. It is an inheritance “that 
fadeth not away.” It is beyond the blight of 
change. The leaf never turns. “Time does 
not breathe on its fadeless bloom.” Into this 
glorious inheritance are we begotten again 
by the abundant mercy of God. 

 “Begat us again... unto a salvation ready Verse & 
to be revealed im the last time.” Here comes 
in the graciousness of spiritual evolution. 
All the steps on the work of salvation are 
“ready,” right away to the ultimate con- 
summation. There has been no caprice in 
the arrangements. There need be no uncer- 
tainty in the expectations. There has been no 
defect in the preparations. There is no lack in 
the resources. What is needed for the ripening 
of the redeemed character has been provided. 
At every step of the way “all things are ready.” 
The glorious possibilities range from the seed 


8 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


to the “full corn in the ear”; from the new 
birth to the “salvation ready to be revealed 
in the last time.” Such is the inspiring 
prospect, and such are some-of the glorious 
possibilities of the redeemed and re-created 
life. 

We have searched this glowing doxology 
for glimpses of the new-begotten life. We 
have gazed upon its fascinating range of 
possibilities. Has it any suggestion to offer 
of the dynamics by which these alluring possi- 
bilities may be achieved? I have already 
dwelt upon the vitalising energy which flows - 
from its living hope. Are there other sugges- 
tions of empowering dynamics by which even 
the loftiest spiritual height may be scaled? Let - 
us glance at some of these suggested powers. - — 

“According to His great mercy.” I am glad 
and grateful that the pregnant passage is 
prefaced by this word. The regenerated soul 
is just enveloped in “great mercy.” Now 
mercy implies sympathy. We cannot have 
mercy without sympathy. Without mercy we 
cannot have leniency; but leniency is only 
thin, pinched fruit compared with the fat, juicy 
fruit of mercy. Without sympathy we may 
have giving, but unsympathetic giving is like 
the cold, outer threshold, while mercy is like a 
glowing hearthstone. Mercy implies sympathy. 


CHAPTER I. 3-5 9 


Go a step further. Sympathy suggests the 
choicest companionship, the rarest of all fellow- 
ships. Where there is true sympathy, there is 
the most exquisite companionship. If, then, 
our God and Father enswathes us in “great 
mercy,” He visits in the sweetest fellowships. 
Therefore in the redeemed life there can be 
no loneliness, for in the Father’s presence all 
possible loneliness is destroyed. The mercy 
which implies companionship accompanies me 
as a dynamic from my faintest breathing as 
a babe-Christian on to the consummation when 
I shall have become a full-grown man in 
Christ. 

“Begat us again... by the resurrection of Verse 3 
Jesus Christ from the dead.” His resurrection 
opens to me the doors of the immortal life. 
If He had not risen, my hope had never been 
born. The breaking up of His grave means 
the breaking up of man’s winter, and the so't 
approach of the eternal spring. Because He 
has risen, death no longer counts! That Life, 
which in death defeated death, and converted 
“the place of a skull” into the altar of the 
people’s hope, is the dynamic of the regenerate 
soul, and makes the life invulnerable. 

“ By the power of God guarded unto salvation.” Verse 5 
Here is another aspect of the gracious energy 
which enables me to convert possibilities into 


10 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


achievements. I am “guarded.” The “power 
of God” defends me, hems me in, and secures 
me from every assault. My Father's power 
is my garrison. He engirdles me, like a de- 
fensive army occupying a city wall, and makes 
me invincible against the menace and attacks 
of the devil. “As the mountains are round 
about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about 
His people.” Such are the adequate resources, 
and such the wonderful equipments of the re- 
generate life. The land that stretches before 
us is glorious. The power to possess it is 
equally glorious. They may both be ours “ by 
faith.” 


SORROWFUL, YET ALWAYS 
REJOICING 


1 PETER i. 6, 7 


Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, 
uf need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold trials, 
that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold 
that perisheth though it is proved by fire, might be found 
unto praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus 
Christ. 


“WHEREIN ye greatly rejoice!” These foun- 
tains of spiritual joy shoot into the light at 
most startling and unexpected places. Their 
favourite haunt seems to be the heart of the 
desert. They are commonly associated with 
a land of drought. In these Scriptural records 
I so often find the fountain bursting through 
the sand, the song lifting its pxan out of 
the night. If the text is a well of cool and 
delicious water, the context is frequently 


arid waste. ‘“ Wherein ye greatly rejoice, verse6 


though now... ye have been put to grief.” 
A present rejoicing set in the midst of an 
environing grief! A profound and refreshing 
1 


12 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


satisfaction, even when the surface of the life 
is possessed by drought! I never expected to 
find a fountain in so unpromising a waste. 
‘Blessed are ye when men shall revile you 
and persecute you, and shall say all manner 
of evil against you falsely for my sake. 
Rejoice!” Who ever expected to find a 
well in that Sahara? As I trod the hot burn- 
ing sands of “reviling” and “ persecuting ” 
and false accusing, little did I anticipate en- 
countering a fountain of spiritual delight. Let 
us once again contemplate the strange con- 
junction. ‘Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! Woe 
unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Caper- 
naum!” This on the one hand. And on the 
other hand, “A certain lawyer stood up, and 
tempted Him.” And between the two, “Jesus 
rejoiced in the Spirit.” Again, I say, I am 
amazed at the setting. If life were a prolonged 
marriage-feast, one might anticipate hearing 
the happy bells at every corner of the way; 
but to hear the joyous peal in the hour of 
grievous midnight and eclipse arrests the 
heart in keen and strained surprise. “ These 
things have I said unto you, that My joy 
may be in you” “My joy!” And yet 
Calvary loomed only a _ hand’s-breadth off, 
just twenty-four hours away! I thought 
the joy bells might have been heard away 


CHAPTER I. 6, 7 13 


back in Nazareth, in the beauty and serenity 
of a secluded village life, or on some quiet 
evening, with His friends on the Galilean 
lake; but I never anticipated hearing them at 
Calvary’s base, in full view of shame and 
crucifixion. “My joy!” “One of you shall 
betray Me.” It is a marvellous conjunction, but 
one which is almost a commonplace in the 
Christian Scriptures. ‘They received the word 
in much affliction, with joy in the Holy Ghost.” 
It is a mysterious, yet glorious wedlock. 
“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now... 
ye have been put to grief.” What is the sug- 
gestion of this apparently forced and incon- 
gruous union? The suggestion is this, that the 
spiritual joy of the redeemed life is continuous, 
and is not conditioned by the changing moods 
of the transient day. Spiritual delights are not 
dried up when I pass into the seasons of mate- 
rial drought. When the shadows settle down 
upon my life, and my experiences darken into 
night, the night is not to be without its cheery 
and illuminating presence. The place of the 
midnight is to be as “the land of the mid- 
night sun.” There shall be light enough to 
enable me to read the promises, to see my way, 
and to perceive the gracious presence of my 
Lord. ‘He that followeth Me shall not walk in 
darkness, but shall have the light of life.” 


14 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


Therefore the shadow need not annihilate my 
joy. My temporary grief need not expunge 
my spiritual delights. The funeral knell of 
bereavement may be tolling in the outer 
rooms of the life, while in the most secret 
places may be heard the joy bells of trustful 


communion with God. ‘ Wherein ye greatly 
rejoice, though now ... ye have been put 
to grief.” 


“ Wherein ye greatly rejoice.” If our 
spiritual joy is to be continuous and per- 
suasive, sending its pure vitalising ray even 
through the season of grief, we shall have 
to see to it that it is adequately nourished 
and sustained. Now, the nutriment of joy 
is to be found in appropriate thought. Hap- 
piness is usually the resultant of sensations, 
the ephemeral product of  sensationalisms, 
having the uncertain life of the things on 
which it depends. Joy is the product of deep, 
quiet, steady, appropriate thought. Thought 
provides the oxygen in which the bright, 
cheery flame of love is sustained. What 
kind of thought is required? “ Wherein ye 
rejoice”! In what? The rejoicing emerges 
from an atmosphere of thought—the thought 
which is contained in the previous verses, 
and which formed the basis of our last 
exposition. It is a contemplation of the 


CHAPTER I. 6, 7 15 


possibilities and dynamics of the redeemed | 
life. The possibilities stretch away in a most — 
glorious and alluring panorama: “a _ living 
hope”; ‘an inheritance incorruptible and 
undefiled, and that fadeth not away”; “a 
salvation ready to be revealed in the last 
time.” The dynamics are no less wealthy 
than the prospects: the “great mercy” of | 

_the Father; “the resurrection of Jesus from | 
the dead”; “the power” of the Holy Ghost! 
These constitute the oxygenating thought of 
the Christian redemption. If the soul be im- 
mersed in it, faint sparks will be kindled into 
fervent flames, and timid desires will be 
strengthened into confident rejoicing. “As I 
mused, the fire burnt.” Let mind and heart 
make their home in the spacious thoughts 
of God, and there will be born in the life 
a moral and spiritual glow which will not 
be chilled by any transient cloud, nor 
extinguished by the storms of the most 
tempestuous night. ‘Wherein ye greatly 
rejoice.” 

“Though now for a little while, if need be, 
ye have been put to grief in manifold trials.” Verse 6 
The “manifold trials” will come. Antago- 
nisms may rush down upon us from north, 
south, east, and west, and may twist and 
wrench our lives into strange bewilderments, 


16 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


and yet the continuous thread of spiritual 
rejoicing need never be broken. Our affairs 
may be tossed into incredible complications, 
and yet “the joy of the Lord may be our 
strength.” The pleasing air of music, which 
in its simplicity a child might hum, may 
appear to be lost as it passes into the maze of 
tortuous variations and complications, but an 
expert ear can detect the continuity of the 
primal air beneath all the accretions of the 
voluminous sound. The air of simple spiritual 
rejoicing, which may be clearly heard when life 
is plain and serene, may be continued when 
life becomes complex and burdened, torn and 
harassed by “manifold trials.” We may still 
hear the sweet primitive air of Christian re- 
joicing. Iam not surprised to hear the sounds 
of rejoicing from Paul’s life, when he was 
holding precious and sanctified intercourse with 
such beloved friends as Prisca and Aquila. But 
when the apostle is “put to grief through 
manifold trials,” and life becomes dark, heavy, 
and complicated, how will it fare with him then ? 
“The gaoler thrust them into the inner prison, 
and made their feet fast in the stocks. And 
it came to pass that at the midnight ’’—that is 
what I want to know about—“at the mid- 
night Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises 
unto God.” It is the old air, rising through 


CHAPTER I. 6, 7 17 


the pains and burden of a harassed and 
sorely tried life. “As sorrowful, yet always 
rejoicing.” 

Now, these “ manifold trials” assume many 
guises and employ varied weapons of painful 
inquisition. Some of them may be found in 
the antagonism of men. Loyalty to truth may 
be confronted with persecution. A beautiful 
ministry may be given an evil interpretation. 
Our beneficence may be maligned. Our very 
leniency may be yituperated and proclaimed 
as a device of the devil. This may be one 
of the guises of “the manifold trials.” Or 
our antagonism may be found in the apparent 
hostility of our circumstances. - Success is denied 
us. Every way we take seems to bristle with 
difficulties. Every street we enter proves to 
be a cul de sac. We never emerge into an airy 
and spacious prosperity. We pass our days in 
material straits. Such may be another of the 
guises of “the manifold trials.” Or it may 
be that our antagonist dwells in the realm of 
our own flesh. We suffer incessant pain. We 
are just a bundle of exquisite nerves. The 
streets of the city are instruments of torture. 
The bang of a door shakes the frail house to 
its base. We are the easy victims of physical 
depression. Who knows but that this may have 
been Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”? At any 


18 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER ~ 


rate, it is one of “the manifold trials” by 
which many of our brethren are put to grief. 
I will go no further with the enumeration, 
because I am almost impatient to once again — 
declare the evangel which proclaims that be- 
hind all these apparent antagonisms we may 
have the unceasing benediction of the joy of 
our Lord. It is possible—I declare it, not as 
my personal attainment, but as a glorious pos- 
sibility which is both yours and mine—it is 
possible to get so deep into the thought and 
purpose of God, and to dwell so near His 
very heart, as to “count it all joy” when 
we “fall into manifold trials,” because of that 
mystic spiritual alchemy by which trials are 
changed into blessings and our antagonists 
transformed into our slaves. 

Can we just now nestle a little more closely 
into the loving purpose of God? Why are 
antagonisms allowed to range themselves across 
our way? Why are there any blind streets 
which bar our progress? Why does not labour 
always issue in success? Why are “manifold 
trials” permitted? We may find a partial 
response in the words of my text. They are 


Verse 7 permitted for “the proof” of our faith. That 


is the purposed ministry of the sharp antagonism 
and the cloudy day—“ the proof of your faith.” 
Now, to “prove” the faith means much more 


CHAPTER I. 6, 7 19 


than to test it. First of all, it means to reveal 
it. To prove the faith is to prove it to others. 
God wants to reveal and emphasise your faith, 
and so He sends the cloud. May we not 
say that the loveliness of the moonlight is 
revealed and emphasised by the ministry of the 
cloud? It is when there are a few clouds 
about, and the moonlight transiguring them, 
that the glory of the moon herself is declared. 
And it is when the cloud is in the life that 
the radiance of our faith is proved and pro- 
claimed. How conspicuously the calm, steady 
faith of our glorified Queen was proved by 
the clouds which so frequently gathered about 
her life! The “manifold trials” set out in 
grand relief that which might have remained 
acommonplace. Light which fringes the cloud 
is light which is beautified. Faith which gleams 
from behind the trial is faith which is glorified. 
It is the hard circumstance which sets in relief 
the quality of our devotion. As I listened to 
a thrush singing in the cold dawn of a winter’s 
morning, I thought its song seemed sweeter 
and richer than when heard in the advanced 
days of spring. The wintry setting emphasised 
the quality of the strain. Perhaps if we heard 
the nightingale in the glare of the noontide, 
the song would not arrest us as when it pro- 
ceeds from the depths of the night. The shades 


20 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


and loneliness add something to the sweetness. 
“And at midnight Paul and Silas sang.” That 
is the song which is heard by the fellow-prisoners 
and startles them into wonder. The trial came 
and your faith was “proved.” You lost your 
money, and men discovered your devotion. 
Your gold, the finest of your gold, the most 
rare and exquisite among your treasures, was 
destroyed and perished; but in the hour of 
your calamity your faith was proved, and men 
bowed in spiritual wonder before the mystery 
of the Divine. Your trial was your triumph; 
the place of apparent defeat became the hal- 
lowed shrine of a glorious conquest. ‘“ Now are 
ye in grief through manifold trials,” that in the 
midst of the cloud the Lord might “ prove” 
and reveal your faith. 

But “the manifold trials” do more than 
reveal the faith. There is another ministry 
wrapped up in this suggestive word “ prove.” 

Verse 7 The trial that reveals the faith also strengthens 
and confirms it. The faith that is “proved” 
is more richly endowed. The strong wind and 
rain which try the tree are also the ministers 
of its invigoration. The round of the varying 
seasons makes the tree “well seasoned,” and 
solidifies and enriches its fibre. It is the nega- 
tive which develops the strength of the affirma- 
tive. It is antagonism which cultivates the 


CHAPTER I. 6, 7 21 


wrestler. It is the trial which makes the 
saint. The man who sustains his hold upon 
God through one trial will find it easier to 
confront the next trial and exploit it for 
eternal good. And so these “manifold trials” 
prove our faith. They reveal and they enrich 
our resources. They strengthen and refine 
our spiritual apprehension. They may strip 
us of our material possessions, “the gold 
that perisheth,” but they endow us with the 
wealth of that “inheritance” which is “in- 
corruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away.” 

And, finally, there is one other radiant 
glimpse of the resplendent issues of a “ proved” 
and invigorated faith: ‘‘That the proof of your 
faith . . . might be found unto praise and Verse7 
glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus 
Christ.” 

Our “proved” faith is to come to its crown 
in a manifestation of praise and glory and 
honour. When Jesus appears, these things are 
to appear with Him. The trial of our faith 
is to issue in “praise.” And what shall be 
the praise? On that great day of unveiling, 
when all things are made clear, I shall dis- 
cover what my trials have accomplished. I shall 
perceive that they were all the time the instru- 
ments of a gracious ministry, strengthening 


22 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


me even when I thought I was beimg im- 
poverished. The wonderful discovery will urge 
my soul into song, and praise will break upon 
my lips. ‘Found unto praise and glory.” And 
whose shall be the glory? When the Lord 
appears, many other things will become ap- 
parent. What I thought hard will now appear 
as gracious. What I recoiled from as severe 
I shall find to be merciful. What I esteemed 
as forgetfulness will reveal itself as faith- 
fulness. He was nearest when I thought Him 
farthest away. He was faithful even when 
I was faithless. At His appearing I shall 
apprehend and appreciate my Lord. “The 
glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” “ Found 
unto praise and glory and honour.” And 
whence shall flow the honour? [I shall find 
that when the Lord sent a trial, and by the 
trial revealed my faith, many a fainting heart 
took courage, and by the beauty of my de- 
votion many a shy soul was secretly wooed 
into the kingdom of God. I never knew 
it, but at His appearing this shall also appear. 
_ This discovery shall be my coronation. The 
supreme honours of heaven are reserved for 
those who have brought others there. ‘They 
that turn many to righteousness shall shine as 
the stars for ever and ever.” And so by the 
cloud of manifold trials God leads me into 


CHAPTER L 6, 7 23 


the spacious sovereignty of glory, praise, and 
honour. 


God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform ; 

He plants His footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm. 


Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take 3 
The clouds ye so much dread 

Are big with mercy, and shall break 
With blessings on your head. 


A TWOFOLD RELATIONSHIP AND ITS 
FRUITS. 
1 PETER i. 8, 9 


Whom not having seen ye love ; on whom, though now ye see 
Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeak- 
able and full of glory. 

Verse 8‘ Whom not having seen ye love.’ We some- 
times speak of “love at first sight.” Two lives 
are brought together, and there is a recognition 
pregnant with far-off destinies. ‘Deep calleth 
unto deep.” The affinities leap into spiritual 
wedlock. Each knows the other as life’s com- 
plement, and the hearts embrace in hallowed 
union. It was only a look, and love was born: 
Entering then, 

Right o’er a mount of newly fallen stones, 

The dusky-raftered, many-cobwebbed hall, 

He found an ancient dame in dim brocade; 

And near her, like a blossom vermeil-white 

That lightly breaks a faded flower sheath, 

Moved the fair Enid all in faded silk, 

Her daughter. In a moment thought Geraint, 

“Here by God’s rood is the one maid for me.” 
The fair vision came, and its gentle impression 
awoke the sleeping love and stirred it into fer- 
vent and vigilant life. It was “ love at first sight.” 

24 


CHAPTER I. 8, 9 25 


But love is not always aroused by the first 
sight. The “first sight” may not stir the heart 
to even a languidinterést. The vision may be as 
uninfluential as a cipher. Or the “first sight” 
may create a repulsion. It may excite my dis- 
like. It may rather rouse the critic than wake 
the lover. But love that remains sleeping at 
the “first sight” may be aroused by more 
intimate communion. The ministries of the 
spirit may triumph where the allurements of 
the countenance failed. Love may be born, not 
of sight, but of fellowship. It may spring into 
being amid the intimacies of a deepening com- 
panionship. You remember the story of Othello 
and Desdemona, and how their hearts were 
drawn into affectionate communion. It was 
not love at “first sight,’ but love at heart 
sight. He told her the story of his chequered 
life, of “battles, sieges, fortunes” he had 
passed, of disastrous chances, of moving acci- 
dents by flood and field. “This to hear would 
Desdemona* seriously incline.” 


My story being done 
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs; 
She swore, in faith, ‘twas strange, twas passing strange ; 
"Twas pitiful, ‘twas wondrous pitiful. 


She loved me for the dangers I had passed, 
And I loved her that she did pity them. 


26 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


It was the communion of spirit with spirit 
which unsealed the springs of their affection. 
We recognise the principle in common life. 
A number of young people are thrown together 
in frequent fellowship. For months, and per- 
haps for years, their association does not pass 
beyond the sphere of friendship. But one day 
the fellowship of two of them opened into 
intimacy, and the sober servant, friendship, 
made way for the master passion, love. They 
had seen each other’s faces for years, and they 
remained companions; they caught a glimpse 
of each other’s hearts, and they were trans- 
formed into lovers. So love may be the child 
of spiritual intimacy. It may wait on know- 
ledge. It may wake into being through the 
ministry of a deep communion. 

“Whom not having seen ye love.” Theirs 
was not the love born of gazing upon Christ’s 
face, but the love begotten by communion with 
His heart. Love may be born of spiritual 
fellowship. If only we can get into intimacy 
with the Master’s spirit, love may wake into 
being and song. It is just for this opportunity 
of individual communion that the Master is 
craving. He has little fear of our not fall- 
ing in love with Him, if we will only listen 
to His story. He wants to visit the heart 
and whisper His evangel in the secret place. 


CHAPTER I. 8, 9 27 


Do I debase the sublime quest when I say 
He yearns to “court” the soul, to woo and 
to win it? “If any man will open the door, 
I will come in and sup with him.” That is 
what He asks—an open door. He asks to be 
allowed to visit the soul, to pay His atten- 
tions, to declare His aims and purposes, and 
to whisper the Gospel of His own unsearch- 
able love. He wants to talk to us separately 
in individual wooings. He wants us to find a 
little time to listen to Him while He talks about 
the Father and Sonship, and life and its re- 
sources, and heaven and its rest and glory. 
He wants to talk to us about the burden of 
sin and guilt, and the exhaustion of weakness. 
He wants to whisper something to us about 
our newly born child and about our newly made 
grave. He would like to come very near to 
us and tell us what He knows about sorrow 
and death, and the morrow which begins at the 
shadow we fear. I say He wants to tell it all 
to thee and to me—to thee, my brother, as 
though there were no other soul to woo beneath 
God’s heaven. The winsome story shall wind 
its wonderful way around Christ and Bethlehem 
and thee, around Christ and Gethsemane and 
thee, around Christ and Calvary and thee, 
around Christ and heaven and thee! He will 
tell thee of His agonies and tears, and He will 


28 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


show thee the scars He received in the quest of_ 
thy redemption. 

Hath He marks to lead me to Him 

If He be my guide? 
In His hands and feet are wound-prints, 
And His side. 

He will tell thee all His story. And the sublime 
purpose of the communion shall be to woo 
thee, that in His tender fellowship the springs 
of thine own love may be unsealed and thou 
mayest become engaged, by the bonds of an 
eternal covenant, to the Lord of life and glory. 
“We love him because he first” wooed us 
The early love may be timid and shy, half 
afraid of itself, and trembling in some un- 
certainty, but it shall put on strength and 
sweetness in the deeper and riper fellowships 
of your wedded life. Wedded to the King, you 
shall come to realise more and more the freedom 
of His forgiveness, the triumph of His power, 
the sweet pressure of His presence, the alluring 
glory of the living hope, and with this enrich- 
ment of your intimacies your heart will become 
possessed by a more intense and fervent affection 
for Him “ whom not having seen ye love.” 


Verse8 “On whom... believing.” Here is a second ex- 
pression of the Christian’s relationship to Christ. 
“On whom... believing.” The figure is sug- 


gestive of a leaning posture, an attitude of 


CHAPTER I. 8, 9 29 


dependence, a confident resting of one’s weight 
upon the Christ we love. It is the acceptance 
of His reasonings as sound. It isthe assumption 
that His judgments are dependable. It is the 
usage of His weapons as adequate for our strife. 
It is the assurance that His promises are the ex- 
pression of spiritual laws, and that there is no 
more caprice in their ministry than there is in 
the operation of laws in the physical world. 
“On Him believing.” But it is more than 
assent to a conclusion, more than a confidence 
in His word. It is repose upon a person, a 
resting upon a presence, a trusting in a com- 
panionship. If the Christian evangel is worth 
anything at all it means this—that the Christ 
of God, the “ Lover of the soul,” is by the loved 
one’s side in inseparable and all-sufficient fellow- 
ship. In the moment of extraordinary crisis 
and strain, “on” Him I can depend for im- 
mediate equipment. In the long-drawn-out day 
of wearying and monotonous commonplace, “on” 
Him I can lean for unfailing supplies. In the 
dark and cloudy day, and amid the gathering 
terrors of the advancing night, “on” Him I 
can depend for inspiring light and life. That is 
the very music of the Christian evangel. The 
words which indicate the Master’s presence 
suggest the all-significant closeness of His Spirit. 
“Companion!” “Comforter!” ‘ Fellowship!” 


30 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


“Partaker!” The phraseology varies; the sig- 
nificance is one. The Lord is imminent and 
immediate: “Closer is He than breathing, and 
nearer than hands and feet”; upon Him we 
may trustfully rest our weight in all the 
changing circumstances of our ever-changing 
way. 

Verse 8 ‘‘ Whom not having seen ye love; on whom.. . 
believing, ye rejoice.” Is there anything surprising 
in the issue? Won by His love, wedded to the 
Lord, confident in His fellowship—is it any 
wonder that out of such wealthy conditions 
there should arise a fountain of joy? Surely 
we have the very ingredients of spiritual de- 
light. If we take spiritual affection—“ whom 
not having seen ye love’”—and combine it with 
spiritual confidence—“ on whom . . . believing” 
—I do not see how we can escape the crown of 
rejoicing. If either of the elements be anni- 
hilated, our joy is destroyed. All the bird-music 
that rings through the countryside at the dawn 
can be hushed by the appearance of the hawk. 
Let your little child come into a presence in 
whom she has not gained confidence, and the 
light of joy departs, and her face becomes like 
a blown-out lamp. It is the co-operative 
ministry of love and confidence which awakes 
the genius of joy. It is the love and con- 
fidence of wedded life which make the clear, 


CHAPTER IL 8 9 31 


calm joy of the hurrying years. The thought 
of the loved one is a baptism of light. A letter 
from the loved one redeems any day from 
commonplace. The presence of the loved one 
is a full and perpetual feast. It is not other- 
wise in the highest relationships. If the soul 
and the Lord are lovers, and there is a mutual 
confidence, the soul will drink at the river of 
rare and exquisite delights. To think of Him 
will set the bells a-ringing. 


Jesus, the very thought of Thee 
With sweetness fills my breast. 


How unlike that other soul of whom we read in 
the Sacred Word, “I remembered God, and was 
troubled.” A thought that rang an alarm-bell. 


Jesus, the very thought of Thee 

With sweetness fills my breast. 
A remembrance that rang anew the wedding- 
bells. “Whom not having seen ye love.” Then 
it is daytime in the soul. “On whom... 
believing.” Then there is no cloud over the 
communion. Daytime and no cloud! Then 
there must be sunshine in the soul. “ Ye rejoice 
greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 

“ With joy unspeakable.” All the deepest and Verse 8 

richest things are unspeakable. A mother’s 
love! Who has discovered a symbol by which 
to express it? It is unspeakable. A profound 


32 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


grief! Where is the speech in which it can 
be enshrined ? 
In words like weeds I'll wrap me o’er, 
Like coarsest clothes against the cold; 


But that large grief which these enfold 
Is given in outline and no more. 


It is unspeakable. A bleeding sympathy! Has 
it not just to remain dumb? We stand or sit 
with interlocked hands, bereft of all adequate 
expression! It is unspeakable. A_ spiritual 
joy! Howshallwetellit? Where is the mould 
of speech which can catch and hold the ethereal 
presence ? It is unspeakable. 
But what to those who find? Ah! this 
Nor tongue nor pen can show: 


The love of Jesus, what it is 
None but His loved ones know. 


Verse 8 “ With joy unspeakable and full of glory.” It is 
a joy which is glorious and glorifying. There 
are joys that weaken and impair the soul. The 
happiness of the world is a corroding atmosphere 
that blunts and destroys the fine perception and 
discernments of the life. But “joy in the 
Lord” is light which glorifies life. It is like 
sunshine on the landscape. It adds warmth, 
and beauty, and tenderness, and grace. This 
joy is never productive of weakness; it is 
synonymous with power. “The joy of the Lord 
is your strength.” 


CHAPTER L 8, 9 38 


“Receiving the end of your faith, even the verse 9 
salvation of your souls.” Wedded to the Lord 
in consecrated love, leaning upon Him in con- 
fident dependence, rejoicing in joy unspeak- 
able—surely this will mean a ripening personality 
maturing day by day, shedding not only its 
disease but also its impotence. We “receive” 
the salvation of our souls. Moment by moment 
we “receive” it. Our salvation is a gradual 
but assured ascension into the strength and 
beauty of the King. We are in the currents 
of the everlasting life. Moment by moment we 
receive the end of our faith. Each moment 
deposits its own contribution to my spiritual 
heritage. Moment by moment I enter more 
deeply into my inheritance in Christ, into “the 
unsearchable riches of grace.” 


Verse 13 


BEING FASHIONED 


1 PETER i. 13-16 


Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and 
set your hope perfectly on the grace that is being brought 
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as children 
of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your 
former lusts in the time of your ignorance : but like as He 
which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all 
manner of living ; because tt is written, Ye shall be holy ; 
for I am holy. 


“ Wherefore!” The word gathers up all the 
wealthy results of the previous reasonings. 
The present appeal is based on the introductory 
evangel. The inspiration of tasks is found in 
the recesses of profound truths. Spiritual 
impulse is created by the momentum of super- 
lative facts. The dynamic of duty is born in 
the heart of the Gospel. ‘“ Wherefore,” says 
the apostle, if these be your prospects and 
dynamics, if you have been “ begotten again 
into a living hope,” if you are heirs to 
“an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,” 
if even apparent hostilities may be converted 
34 


CHAPTER I. 13-16 35 


into wealthy helpmeets, and “manifold trials” 
into the ministers of salvation, “ girding up the 
loins of your mind, be sober and set ycur 
hope perfectly on the grace that is being 
brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus 
Christ.” 

The “wherefore” is thus suggestive of the 
bases of this urgent and practical appeal. Our 
life is purposed to shine in Divine dignity. 
Our prospects are glorious. Our resources are 
abounding. We should therefore lay aside 
our laxity. Life should not be spent in idle 
reverie. Our movement should not be a careless 
sauntering. Our rest should not be a thought- 
less lounging. Life should be characterised by 
clear sight, definite thought, eager purpose, and 
decided ends. 

“ Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind.” Verse 13 
The figure of the passage is taken from the 
flowing garments of the Oriental dress. The 
flapping robes catch the wind and wrap them- 
selves about the legs, and become serious 
hindrances to easy and progressive movement. 
The wearer therefore lays hold of the en- 
tangling garments and tucks them into a girdle, 
which discharges the ministry of a belt. He 
gathers together the disorderly robes and binds 
them into a compact and serviceable vesture. 
Now, the apostle declares that a similar dis- 


36 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


order may prevail in the realm of thought and 
affection. Our life may be characterised by 
mental slovenliness. Our thoughts may trail in 
loose disorder. We may give little or no care 
to the beauty and firmness of the mind. How 
much loose thinking there is concerning the 
profoundest and most vital concerns of our 
life! And the loose thinking does not end with 
itself. A loose garment may trip a man up 
_and cause him to stumble. Loose thinking is 
equally perilous, and may lead to moral 
entanglement and perdition. Loose thinking 
is creative of loose living; mental slovenliness 
issues in moral disorder. Therefore “ gird up 
the loins of your mind.” Put some strenuous- 
ness into your thinking. Do not let your 
thought drift along on the stream of reverie. 
Steer your thought and strongly guide it into 
wealthy havens. How do I think about God? 
Loosely and unworthily, or with firm and 
fruitful conception? ‘God is great,” and greatly 
to be thought about; and if I think about Him 
loosely my sonship will be a stumbling and an 
offence. How do I think about grace? Is my 
thinking sluggish and unworthy, and so do I 
“despise the riches of his goodness”? How 
do I think about my spiritual call and prospects 
and destiny? Am I stumbling over my own 
thinking? Are my own garments my most 


CHAPTER I. 13-16 37 


immediate snares? Is my spiritual confusion 
the result of my mental indolence? “My 
people do not consider.” In my want of strong 
and strenuous thinking may be found some 
explanation of my moral and _ spiritual 
disasters. 

As it is with"the element of thought, so it is 
with the power of affection; for perhaps in the 
spiritual term “mind” both thought and 
affection are included. We speak of “ wander- 
ing affections,” and truly affection may become 
an appalling vagrant. Affection is easily 
allured, easily entangled, easily snared by the 
worldly glitter which gleams by the side of 
the common way. Or, if we recur to the 
apostle’s figure, our loose affections, like flowing 
garments that are blown about by the wind, 
entangle our faculties and make havoc of our 
moral and spiritual progress. We must ‘gird 
up the loins” of our affection. It will not be 
child’s play, but he who wants a religion of 
child’s play must not seek the companionship 
of Christ. The Master spake of cutting off the 
right hand and plucking out the right eye, and 
the bleeding figure has reference to the sever- 
ing of relationships and the disentangling of 
well-established affections. To free a flowing 
garment which has been caught in a thorn 
hedge may necessitate rents, and to disentangle 


88 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


an unworthy affection may necessitate pain, 
but even at the cost of rent and pain the 
deliverance must be effected. We must gird 
up the loins of our trailing affections. We 
must-not hold them so cheaply. We must not 
permit them to sweep the broad road and 
to expose themselves to the efitanglement of 
every obtruding thorn. We must “set” our 
“affections upon things above,” and for that 
sublime purpose we must gather them together 
in strenuous concentration. This exhortation 
is therefore an appeal for collectedness both of 
thought and of feeling. It is a warning against 
mental and affectional looseness, and with 
loving urgency the apostle pleads with his 
readers to pull themselves together, to gird up 
their loins, and with full energy of thought and 
feeling devote themselves to the worship and 
service of God. 

Verse 13“ Be sober.” This is more than an injunction 
against intemperance in diet. Intemperance is 
productive of stupor. It is the enemy of a 
refined sensitiveness. It is creative of heaviness 
and sleep. And it is this closing of the senses, 
by whatever agency it may be induced, against 
which the apostle raises his voice in clamant 
warning. “Be sober.” Be on your guard 
against everything which is creative of heavi- 
ness, and which may put your senses into a 


CHAPTER I. 13-16 39 


perilous sleep. At all costs keep awake and 
vigilant! Just as excessive drinking drugs the 
flesh and sinks the body into a heavy sleep, 
so there are other conditions which create a 
similar stupor in the soul and by which the 
moral and spiritual senses are burdened and 
benumbed. There are opiates and narcotics 
which may make us spiritually drunk, and 
render us unconscious of the Divine voices that 
peal from the heights. “Not a few sleep.” 
The sleep is induced by opiates. There is the 
opiate of pleasure; there is the opiate of 
prosperity; there is the opiate of self-satisfac- 
tion; there is the depressing drug of disap- 
pointment. Against all these we are to be 
on our guard. “Be sober,” and amid all the 
narcotising atmospheres of enchanted grounds 
preserve a wakeful spirit by a ceaseless fellow- 
ship with God. 

“And set your hope perfectly on the grace that Verse 13 
as being brought unto you in the revelation of Jesus 
Christ.” Here is the spiritual attitude by which 
the girded and sober life may be attained. My 
resources are to be found in the grace that is 
brought unto me in Christ. In Christ is my 
reservoir of power. The grace of the Lord 
Jesus is my dynamic. The resource will never 
fail me. The supply is never exhausted. It 
is “being brought” unto me continually—a 


40 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


“river of water of life.” Grace is just a full 
river of heavenly favour, carrying all need- 
ful equipment and rich with the potencies of 
eternal life. Upon this grace I am to find the 
basis of my hope. I am to “set my hope 
perfectly” upon this as the all-sufficient energy 
for lifting me to the unveiled heights and 
enabling me to dwell there in undisturbed 
serenity. JI am to release my thought from 
hindering entanglements, and I am to deliver 
my affection from enslaving fellowships, and I 
am to preserve a vigilant sobriety amid all the 
sleep-inducing atmospheres of the world; and 
for the accomplishment of this glorious emanci- 
pation I am bidden to “set my hope perfectly 
on the grace that is being brought unto me at 
the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 

The apostle now probes more deeply into 
the mode of godly living, and unveils a little 
more clearly the principle by which the holy 
life is fashioned. Life is formed by conformity. 
There is always a something towards which we 
tend and approximate, and “we take hue from 
that to which we cling.” There is always a 
something “according to” which we are being 
shaped. ‘ According to Thy word,” “according 
to this world,” “according to the former lusts.” 
We are for ever coming into accord with some- 
thing, and that something determines the fashion 


CHAPTER I. 13-16 41 


of our lives. Now, this principle of “ forming 
by conforming” is proclaimed by the apostle 
in the succeeding words of this great passage; 
and as “children of obedience” we are called 
to a manner of life which at once demands 
a stern nonconformity and a strong and fervent 
conformity. 
“Not fashioning yourselves according to your Verse 14 

former lusts in the tume of your ignorance.” “ Not 
fashioning .... according to lusts.” That con- 
formity must be broken. That “accordance” 
must be destroyed. Our lusts must not be our 
formatives, giving shape and fashion to our 
lives. If our lust raise its feverish and im- 
perious demand, we must be stern and relentless 
nonconformists. Are we imagining that the 
imperiousness of lust moves in very circum- 
scribed ways, and that perhaps we escape from 
its fierce and burning tyranny? The New 
Testament conception of lust covers a very 
spacious area, and includes elements to which 
perhaps we should not give the appalling name. 
You may have the same element in different 
guises, now appearing as a solid, and now as 
a liquid, and now as a gas. And you may 
have the same essential vice in some tangible 
loathsomeness and in some hidden and im- 
palpable temper. The Master told us that we 
have the same essential thing in anger and 


“Verse 15 | 


42 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


in murder, only one is gross and solid, while 
the other is gaseous and comparatively refined. 
But the trouble is that, when vice is gaseous, 
we conceive it as proportionately harmless; when 
it solidifies into open crime, it ensures our re- 
probation. Now, when the Master speaks of 
lust, He speaks of it in its gaseous state, as 
a condition of thought, as a state of temper, 
as a mode of spirit; and in this interpretation 
“lust” is Just the essentially carnal, the itching 
after the world, the feverish desire for selfish 
pleasure, to the utter ignoring of the supremacy 
of the truth. 

In many lives this lust is the determining 
and formative force; everything is made to 
bow to it; all the affairs of life are fashioned 
by it. It occupies the throne and moulds all 
life’s concerns into its own accord. The apostle 
vehemently counsels his readers against this 
conformity. He pleads that the children of 
liberty should not retain the governing powers 
of their servitude. The night should not pro- 
vide the patterns for the day. The season of 
“ignorance” should not create the ruling 
powers for the season of knowledge and revela- 
tion. He urges them to revolt against the old 
forces, to become spiritual nonconformists, not 
fashioning themselves after their former lusts. 


“ But like as He which called you is holy, be 


CHAPTER I. 13-16 43 


ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living.” 
The holy God is to be the formative force in 
our life, and to Him are we to be devoted in 
close and intimate conformity. ‘As He which 
called you.” The call is a Divine pledge. The 
acceptance of the call implies a human obliga- 
tion. There is the pledge on the side of God, 
and the obligation on the side of man. The 
call, given and received, creates an intimate 
fellowship. The One who calls is holy, and 
by the mighty ministry of the Spirit he who 
shares the fellowship is transformed into the 
same holiness. All fellowship with God is pro- 
ductive of spiritual likeness. If we gaze into 
His face, we shall be illumined with the light 
of His countenance. ‘“ Beholding as in a mirror 
the glory of the Lord, we are transformed 
into the same image.” We absorb the glory 
of the Lord. We become transfigured by it. 
Let us mark the breadth of the transform- 
ing process. We are to be holy “in all 
manner of living.” The pervasive power of the 
Spirit is to influence every walk of life and 
every part of the walk. The transfiguring 
energy is to inhabit even trifles, and the 
commonplaces of life are to be illumined by 
the indwelling of the eternal light. We shall 
grow in grace, putting on more and more of the 
beauty of Him in whose fellowship we dwell. 


44 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


Verse 16 “ Because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for 1 
am holy.” That is more than an imperative; 
it is an evangel. It is a command which en- 
shrines a promise. Because God is holy we 
have the promise of holiness. Therefore we 
may sing with the psalmist, in words which 
at the first hearing may appear strange, “ We 
give thanks at the remembrance of His holi- 
ness.” Wherefore, with this glorious provision 
for our life, with resources more than adequate 
for our tasks, with power that even surpasses 
the grandeur of our calling, let us “gird up 
the loins of our mind, be sober, and set our 
hope perfectly on the grace that is being 
brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus 
Christ.” 


THE HOLINESS OF THE FATHER 


1 PETER i. 17-21 


And if ye call on Him as Father, who without respect 
of persons judgeth according to each man’s work, pass the 
time of your sojourning in fear: knowing that ye were 
redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, 
from your vain manner of life handed down from your 
fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb withou 
blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ: who 
was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, 
but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake, 
who through Him are believers in God, which raised Him 
from the dead, and gave Him glory ; so that your farth 
and hope might be in God. 


“Tf ye call on Him as Father, who . . . judgeth.” Verse 17 
That is an extraordinary conjunction of terms. 
It is a daring and surprising companion- 
ship to associate, in immediate union, the 
function of the judge with the personality of 
Father. I had anticipated that the term 
“Father” would have suggested quite other 
relationships, and would have emphasised 
functions of an altogether different type. I did 
not anticipate the intimate wedlock of ‘‘ Father” 


and “judge.” I had thought that the glad 
45 


46 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


succession would have proceeded somewhat on 
this wise: “If ye call on Him as Father, who 
loveth!” “Tf ye call on Him as Father, who 
pitieth!” “Tf ye call on Him as Father, who 
forgiveth!” I had interpreted the word “father” 
as being suggestive of the free and kindly 
intimacies of the fireside; but here it stands 
indicative of the august prerogatives of a throne. 
“Tf ye call on Him as Father, who judgeth.” 
The element which I had forgotten is made 
conspicuous and primary, and determines the 
shape and colour of man’s relationship to God. 

“Tf ye call on Him as Father, who judgeth.” 
Then the element of holy sovereignty must be 
a cardinal content in our conception of the 
Fatherhood of God. What does the term 
“ Mather” immediately suggest to me? Good 
nature or holiness; laxity or righteousness; a 
hearthstone or a great white throne? The 
primary element in my conception will deter- 
mine the quality of my religious life. If the 
holiness of Fatherhood be minimised or obscured, 
every other attribute will be impoverished. 
Denude your conception of holiness, and it is 
like withdrawing the ozone from the invigora- 
ting air, or detracting the freshening salt from 
the healthy sea. Suppress or ignore the element 
of holiness, and think of the Father as affection- 
ate, and the love that you attribute to Him 


CHAPTER I. 17-21 47 


will be only as a close and enervating air. 
Love without holiness is deoxygenated, and its 
ministry is that of an opiate or narcotic. Pity 
without holiness is a bloodless sentiment desti- 
tute of all healing efficiency. Forgiveness 
without holiness is the granting of a cheap and 
superficial excuse, in which there is nothing of 
the saving strength of sacrifice. Begin with 
pity or forgiveness, or forbearance or gentleness, 
and you have dispositions without dynamics, 
poor limp things, which afford no resource for 
the uplifting and salvation of the race. But 
begin with holiness, and you put a dynamic into 
every disposition which makes it an engine 
of spiritual health. Forgiveness with holiness 
behind it is a medicated sentiment, fraught with 
healing and bracing ministry. Gentleness with 
holiness behind it touches the aches and sores 
of the world with the firm and delicate hand 
of a discerning and experienced nurse. Exalt 
the element of holiness, and you enrich your 
entire conception of the Fatherhood of God. 
The “river of water of life” flows “out of the 
throne.” ‘The Father who judgeth.” “Our 
Father, hallowed be Thy name.” 

And now the apostle proceeds to tell us how 
his conception of the holiness of God is fostered 
and enriched. Wherever he turns it is God’s 
holiness, and not God’s pity, which smites and 


48 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


arrests his attention. He is never permitted to 
become irreverent, for he is never out of sight 
of “the great white throne.” He moves in 
fruitful wonder, ever contemplating the glory 
of the burning holiness of God. If he meditates 
upon the character of the Father’s judgments, 
it is their holiness by which he is possessed. 
If he moves with breathless steps amid the 
mysteries of redemption, even beneath the 
blackness of the cross he discovers the white- 
ness of the throne. If he dwells upon the 
purposes of the Divine yearning, it is the holi- 
ness of the Father’s ambition for His children 
which holds him entranced. The holiness of 
the Father emerges everywhere. It is expressed 
and placarded in all His doings. Everywhere 
could the apostle take upon his lips the words 
of another wondering spirit who gazed and 
worshipped in a far-off day: “I saw the Lord, 
high and lifted up! Holy, holy, holy is the 


Lorp.” 
Verse17 ‘The Father, who without respect of persons 
judgeth according to each man’s work.” The 


apostle finds the holiness of the Father ex- 
pressed in the character of His judgments. 
The elements which so commonly shape the 
judgments of men do not count in the judg- 
ments of God. He judgeth “without respect - 
of persons.” Fine feathers do not count as 


CHAPTER I. 17-21 49 


refinement. Faces may be masks. The “ per- 
sona” may be an actor. The Father pays no 
respect to the mere show of things. All masks 
become transparent. All veils become trans- 
lucent. The material show, with all ephemeral 
titles, and nobilities, and dignities, and degrees, 
are not accepted as evidence, but are put down, 
and only spiritual characteristics and moral 
essentials are permitted as testimony of personal 
worth. “The Father, without respect of 
persons, judgeth according to each man’s work.” 
And what is the bulk and quality of my work ? 
If the Father judge me by my output in the 
shape of finished and realised achievement, 
then I shrink from the wretched unveiling! I 
have laboured for the salvation of men; how 
will He judge my “work”? Will He tabulate 
the results? Will He count my converts? Is 
that how James Gilmour will be judged, who 
after long years of labour in Mongolia could 
not record a single regenerated soul? If 
“work” means finished results, how few of us 
will be crowned! “ This is the work, that ye 
believe.” That is the basis of judgment. How 
much of holy energy is expressed in our 
relationship to God? What is the strength of 
our fellowship with the Divine? That is the 
primal energy of character, and that is the 
criterion of the Divine judgment. Out of that 


Verse 17 


Verses 
18, 19 


50 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


energy of belief there is born the magnificent 
force which expresses itself in prolonged labours 
in Mongolia, in fearless pioneermg in New 
Guinea, in unromantic, educational ministry in 
India, in plucky, unyielding struggle with great 
evils in England, in tiring, unapplauded toil 
among the poor, in dry and _heart-breaking 
service among the rich, in steady, persistent 
battle with ‘the world, the flesh, and the devil.” 
All these toils are the offspring of belief. In 
the energy of belief they find their life and the 
secret cf their dauntless perseverance. And so 
James Gilmour will not be judged by his 
“results,” but by his “ bloody sweat.” He will 
be judged, and so shall we all, by the suppli- 
cating wrestle of the heart, by the quality of 
our aspiration, by the depth and fervour of our 
belief. In this type and character of judgment 
the apostle sees the mark of the holiness of 
God. “I saw the dead, small and great, stand 
before God,” and the Father judged them 
‘according to each man’s work.” “TI remember 
thy work of faith.” 

The apostle now turns to another expression 
of the holiness of the Father, and he finds it 
in the character of our redemption. ‘ Knowing 
that,” reflecting that, ‘‘ ye were redeemed, not with 
corruptible things . . . but with precious blood, as 
of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even 


CHAPTER I. 17-21 51 


the blood of Christ.” Now, link to this a previous 
word which forms a vital part of the apostle’s 
reasoning. ‘I am holy.” He immediately 
unites the conception of holiness with the 
ministry of redemption. To keep that holiness 
in mind I am to reflect upon the character of 
redemption. Iam to gaze into the mysterious 
depths of redemption, and I shall behold the 
holiness of my Father. Now, that is not our 
common inclination. We look into redemption 
for mercy, forgiveness, condescension, love. 
We look for the genial flame of affection; have 
we been blind to the dazzling blaze of holiness? 
We have felt the warm, yearning intimacy of 
love, inclinmg towards the sinner; have we 
felt the fierce, burning heat where holiness 
touches sin ? 

Redemption is more than the search of 
Father for child; it is a tremendous wrestle of 
holiness with sin. Have we felt only the 
tenderness of the search, and partially over- 
looked the terribleness of the conflict? The 
fear is that we may feel the geniality of the one 
without experiencing the consuming heat of 
the other. I proclaim it as a modern peril. 
We do not open our eyes to the holiness that 
battles in our redemption, and so we gain only 
an enervated conception of redemptive love. 
Is not this a characteristic of many of the 


52 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


popular hymns which gather round about the 
facts of redemption? They are sweet, senti- 
mental, almost gushing; the light, lilting songs 
of a thoughtless courtship: deep in their depths 
I discern no sense of bloody conflict, nor do I 
taste any tang of the bitter cup which made 
our Saviour shrink. And so, because we do not 
discern the majestic crusade of holiness, we do 
not realise the enormity of sin. If we look into 
the mystery of redemption, and do not see the 
august holiness of God, we can never see the 
blackness of the sovereignty of sin. Dim your 
sense of holiness, and you lighten the colour of 
sin. Now see what follows. Obscure the holi- 
ness and you relieve the blackness of sin. 
Relieve the blackness of sin and you impoverish 
the glory of redemption. The more we lighten 
sin the more we uncrown our Redeemer. If 
sin be a light thing, the Redeemer was super- 
fluous. And so, with holiness hidden and sin 
relieved, we come to hold a cheap redemption, 
and it is against the conception of a cheap 
redemption that the apostle raises an eager and 
urgent warning—“ There was nothing cheap 
about your redemption. It was not a light 
ministry which cost a mere trifle. Ye were 
redeemed, not with corruptible things, as silver 
and gold, but with precious blood, even the 
blood of Christ.” Reason from the cost of 


CHAPTER I. 17-21 53 


redemption to the nature of the conflict; 
reason from the nature of the conflict to the 
black enormity of sin; reason from the enormity 
of sin to the glory of holiness! A lax God 
could have given us licence and so redeemed us 
cheaply! A cheap redemption might have 
made us feel easy; it would never have made 
us good. A cheap forgiveness would only have 
confirmed the sin it forgave. If we ‘are to see 
sin we must behold holiness, unveiled for us as 
in a “lamb without blemish and without spot.” 
And so in the sacrifice of Christ, the apostle 
discerns something of the holiness of the 
Father, and thus apprehends the unspeakable 
antagonism of holiness and sin. To him redemp- 
tion is more than a search; it is a conflict. It 
is more than a tender yearning ; it is the mighty 
bearing of an appalling load. Between the 
Incarnation, when Christ was manifested, and the 
Resurrection, when God raised Him from the dead, 
the powers of holiness and sin met face to face 
in mighty combat, and in the appalling darkness 
of Gethsemane and Calvary sin was overthrown 
and holiness was glorified. When I move amid 
the mysteries of redemption, I never want to 
become deaf to my Saviour’s words, ‘If it be 
possible, let this cup pass from Me.” I never 
want His cry to go out of my life, “My God, 
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” So 


Verse 1$ 


54 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


long as that cry sounds through the rooms of 
my life I can never have a cheap Redeemer, 
and I shall be kept from the enervating in- 
fluence of a cheap redemption. In redemption 
I behold an unspeakable conflict which keeps 
me ever in mind of the holiness of the Father- 
hood of God. In my conception of redemption 
there shall be “no curse,’ nothing withering 
and destructive, for ‘“‘the throne of God and 
the Lamb shall be in it.” In the sacrifice of 
love I shall behold the holiness of God. 

Out of this large conception of a holy Father- 
hood there will arise a worthy conception of 
sonship. If God be holy, expressing His 
holiness in all His dealings, and “if ye call on 
Him as Father,” what manner of children ought 
ye to be? If I call the holy God “my Father,” 
the assumption of kinship implies obligation to 
holiness. If I say “ Father,” I may not ignore 
holiness. “If God were your father,” ye would 
bear His likeness. ‘Ye shall be holy; for lam 
holy.” If then ye call on Him as “Father,” 
put yourselves in the way of appropriating His 
glory, and of becoming radiant with the beauty 

Verse 17 of His holiness: “pass the time of your sojourn- 
ing in fear.” There is no suggestion in the 
counsel of any enslaving timidity. We are not 
to cringe like slaves, or to move as though we 
expected that at any moment an abyss might 


CHAPTER I. 17-21 55 


open at our feet. The Christian’s walk is a fine 
swinging step, born of hope and happy con- 
fidence. To “pass the time in fear” is not to 
move in paralysing dread. Nor is it to be the 
victim of a paralysing particularity which con- 
verts every trifle into a thorn, and makes the 
way of hfe a wia dolorosa of countless 
irritations. The Christian is neither a faddist 
nora slave. To “pass the time in feat” is just 
to be fearful of sleep, to watch against indiffer- 
ence, to be alert against an insidious thought- 
lessness, to be spiritually awake and to miss no 
chance of heightening the purity of our souls 
by all the ministries of holy fellowships, and by 
a ready obedience to the Master’s will. “If ye 
call on Him as Father,” let the majestic claim 
inspire you to a spacious ambition: “ pass 
your time” in a fervent aspiration after His 
likeness, ‘‘ perfecting holiness in the fear of the 
Lord.” 


THE CREATION OF CULTURE AND 
AFFECTION 


1 PETER i. 22-25 


Seeing ye @ave purified your souls in your obedience to 
the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another 
from a clean heart fervently : having been begotten again, 
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word 
of God, which liveth and abideth. For, All flesh ts as grass, 
and all the glory thereof asthe flower of grass. The grass 
withereth, and the flower falleth : but the word of the Lord 
abideth for ever. 

In the very heart of this passage there lies a 
fair and exquisite flower—the flower of an in- 
tense and fervent affection. Its surroundings 
reveal to us the means of its production. The 
earlier clauses of the passage describe the mode 
of its growth; the later clauses describe the 
cause of its growth. The first part is descriptive 
of the rootage and the preliminary life of the 
flower of love; the second part proclaims the 
all-enswathing atmosphere in which growth is 
rendered possible and sure. On the one hand, 
there are revealed to us the successive and pro- 
gressive stages of spiritual culture; on the other 
hand, we are introduced to the all-pervading 
66 


CHAPTER I. 22-25 57 


power which determines their evolution. The 
earlier part centres round about “ obedience”; 
the latter part gathers round about “the word 
of God.” The first half emphasises the human; 
the second half emphasises the Divine. The 
human and the Divine combine and co-operate, 
and in their mingled ministry create the sweet 
and unpolluted flower of love. Verse 22 
“ Love one another from a clean heart*fervently.” 
How can I grow this sweet, white flower of 
love? Its creation is not the immediate result 
of volition; it is the issue of a process. We 
cannot command it; we can growit. It is not 
an “alpha” but an “omega,” the “amen” in a 
spiritual succession. If I want the flower, I 
must begin at the root. If I want the love, I 
must begin with obedience. The first stage 
towards a fervent affection is “ obedience to the 
truth.” If a soul yearns to be crowned and 
beautified by the grace of a delicate love, it 
must put itself in the posture of ‘ obedience to 
the truth.” Ay, but what is this truth to which 
we are to pay obeisance? Just as I penned 
the question, the sun, which had been concealed 
behind a cloud, broke from its hiding, and a 
broad, wealthy tide of light flowed over the 
garden, and revealed the young leaves in re- 
splendent glory. The word “tree” obtains a 
new significance when you see the branches 


58 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


swaying in the golden light. It is even so 
with the familiar word “truth.” To one man 
the word is suggestive of a dim, dull, cloudy 
quantity, having little or nothing of arresting 
radiance or beauty. To another man “truth” 
is a gloriously unclouded light, suggesting the 
hallowed beauty of the eternal God. What do 
we mean by the term “hill”? That depends 
upon where we have lived. The word “hill” 
has one significance at Snowdon, another at 
Ben Nevis, another at Mont Blanc, and another 
amid the gigantic heights of Northern India. 
What do we mean by “the truth”? Where 
have we lived? The apostle has not used the 
word “truth” before. He seems to have kept 
it in abeyance until by some preliminary thought 
he has prepared our minds to give it adequate 
content. He has been leading us through a 
pilgrimage of contemplation, and at the end 
of the journey he utters the word “truth,” and 
if we would enter into his conception we must 
pack the word with the experiences of the 
previous way. We have been peering into 
the Fatherhood of God. The apostle has been 
pointing out to us elements which we were 
inclined to forget. "We looked into the Father- 
hood for sweetness; He pointed out whiteness. 
We looked for gentleness; He pointed out: 
holiness. We looked for tender yearnings towards 


CHAPTER I. 22-25 59 


the sinner; He would not permit us to overlook 
the Divine hostility to sin. Wherever the 
apostle turns in the contemplation of the Father- 
hood, it is the “whiteness” that arrests him. 
He looks into the Father’s judgments, and he 
beholds the whiteness of holiness. He glances 
behind the veil into the mysteries of redemption, 
and even amid the sacrifices of love he beholds 
the glory of “the great white throne.” Wher- 
ever he turns his wondering gaze, it is the 
perception of a character “without blemish and 
without spot” that brings him to his knees, 
When, therefore, we emerge from the solemn 
sight-seeing, as we do in the twenty-second 
verse, and I hear the apostle use the word 
“truth,” I know that he inserts into the word 
the content of superlative whiteness, and that 
while he uses it he bows before the holiness of 
the Fatherhood of God. Here, then, we must 
begin the culture of affection. We must begin 
with the contemplation of whitenesss, with a 
steady, steadfast gazing upon the holiness of 
the Fatherhood of God. We must let holiness 
tower in our conception of God, as the dazzling 
snow abides on the lifted heights of the Alps. 
The “truth” is the unveiled face of the Holy 
Father. The first step in the creation of pure 
affection is the contemplation of a Holy God. 
The apostle uses a very graphic word to 


60 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


further describe the healthy pose of a soul in 
reference to “the truth.” We are to be in 
“obedience to the truth.” There is a stoop in 
the word. It is a kneeling at attention. It is an 
eager inclining of the ear to catch the whisper 
of the Holy God. But it is more than that. It is 
the attention of a soul that is girt and ready for 
service. The wings are plumed for ministering 
flight. It is a listening, for the purpose of a 
_ doing. ‘‘ Whosoever heareth these sayings of 
Mine and doeth them.” It is a soul waiting con- 
sciously and eagerly upon the Holy Father with 
the intent of hearing and doing Hiswill. Thisis 
“‘ obedience to the truth,” and this is the prelimi- 
nary step in the creation and culture of God. 
Now, let us pass to the vital succession 
described in the text. We enter a second stage 
Verse 22 of this progressive gradation. “ Ye have purified 
your souls in your obedience to the truth.” 
While ye were doing the one, ye were accom- 
plishing the other. Obedience to truth is the 
agent of spiritual perfection. Homage to holi- 
ness is the minister of refinement. To bow to- 
the august is to enlarge the life. “He that 
humbleth himself shall be exalted.” To listen 
in waiting attention for the expression of the 
will of holiness is to fill the life with cleansing 
and refining ministry. We bleach our fabrics 


by exposing them to the light. We whiten 


CHAPTER I. 22-25 61 


our spiritual garments by dwelling in the 
hallowed glory of the Light of Life. We 
“purify our souls” by our “ obedience to the 
truth.” We purify them. We make them 
chaste in all the varied meaning of that wealthy 
word. We rid them of secret defilements, 
washing quite out of the grain the soaking 
filth of selfishness and of impure ambition. We 
free them of all the uncouthness, the rudeness, 
and the rough discourtesies of the unhallowed 
life. We deliver them from the meretricious, 
the tawdry graces that are made to do duty for 
the fair realities of the sanctified life. The soul 
is made grandly simple, endowed with the 
winsome naturalness and grace of an unaffected 
child. This is the way of the eternal. When we 
-dwell in the light, the powers of the soul are being 
rarefied, touched, and moulded into ever finer 
discernments. The organic quality of the life is 
enriched, and possibilities awakened of which we 
hardly dreamed. We transform our spiritual sub- 
stance when we change our spiritual posture. We 
“purify our souls by our obedience to the truth.” 

Now, mark the next stage in this brightening 
sequence. ‘Ye have purified yoursouls . . . wnto 
unfeigned love.” We are rising into finer issues. 
We have passed from hallowed obedience to 
purified spirit, and now we go on to unfeigned 
affection! The rarest issue of the rose-tree is 


Verse 22 


62 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


the perfume of the rose. From root to perfume 
you ascend a gradation of increasing refine- 
ments until you come to its subtle and bewitch- 
ing breath. And here in my text we have 
arrived at the sphere of fragrance, the realm 
of sentiment, the haunt of affection. ‘Ye have 
purified your souls... unto unfeigned love.” 
Mark the directive force of the preposition— 
“ nurified unto love”; as though the purification 
of the soul made straight, as by a gracious 
destiny, for the birth and revelation of love. 
The spirit can be so chastened, so refined by 
‘obedience to the truth,” that love will emerge 
from it as naturally and spontaneously as 
perfume distils from a rose. “He that hath my 
commandments and keepeth them, he it is that 
loveth!” He cannot help loving; his love is a 
spontaneous, affluence, and he can no more 
restrain it than the rose can imprison her 
fragrance when she is tossed by the playful 
breeze. A fine sentiment is the offspring of a 
fine spirit. The posture of the soul determines 
the quality of the disposition. If the soul 
“live and move and have her being” in the 
presence of the Holy Father, revealed in Christ 
our Saviour, and shape her course in “ obedience 
to the truth,’ she will be sublimed, and all her 
ministries will be attended by a gracious affec- 
tion, diffusing itself as fragrance about the 


CHAPTER I. 22-25 63 


common ways of men. “ Ye have purified your 
soul unto unfeigned love of the brethren.” 

But now it may occasion a little surprise 
that, having reached this apparent climax in 
the thought, the affluence of a spontaneous 
affection, the apostle should add the injunction, 
“Tove one another from a clean heart fervently !” 
What is the purpose of the apparently needless 
addition? We have watched the ascending 
stages in the spiritual processes that issue in 
love; what if there are ascending stages in 
the refinement of love itself? There may be 
degrees of riches even in perfumes. Even love 
itself may be refined into more and more 
exquisite quality. That, I think, is the meaning 
of the apostle’s counsel. He urges them to 
seek for the superlative in the sweet kingdom 
of love, ever to set their minds on “the things 
above,” and to fix their yearnings upon still 
finer issues. We get a clear glimpse into the 
apostle’s mind through the vivid word in which 
he urges the counsel, ‘‘love one another... 
fervently.” There is a suggestion of increased 
tension in the word, as when the string of a 
violin has been stretched to a tighter pitch that 
it might yield a higher note. That is the 
apostle’s figure—a little more tension, that you 
may reach a little higher note. There are 
heights of love unreached. ‘Tighten the strings 


Verse 22 


64 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


of your devotion, that your soul may yield the 
entrancing strains. Be vigilant against all 
laxity, and stretch yourselves to the uttermost 
in the endeavour to compass the manifold music 
of the marvellous scales of love. When, there- 
fore, the apostle enjoins a more fervent love, 
I feel that he drives me back to the first pre- 
liminary stage of spiritual growth. When he 
appeals for higher notes of love, he is really 
counselling a deeper holiness. If my love is to 
be more intense, I must seek a “closer walk 
with God.” I must tighten my holiness if I 
would enrich my music. There will come a 
more discerning love when there is a more 
devoted obedience. I shall pass from finer 
homage to rarer spiritual purity, and from rarer 
spiritual purity to creasing exquisiteness in 
love. “Seeing you have purified your souls in 
your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned 
love of the brethren, love one another from a 
clean heart fervently.” 

How can we depend upon this succession in 
the processes? How can we be assured that 
one stage will lead to another in inevitable 
spiritual gradation? What is the nature of the 
bond and the quality of the guarantee? What 
is our assurance that “obedience to truth” will 
issue in chaste refinement of spirit, and that 
spiritual refinement will be crowned by a rare 


CHAPTER I. 22-25 65 


and fervent affection? The basis of our reli- 

ance is “the word of God.” It was through Verse 23 
the word of God there was given to us the 

seed of a regenerated life. We were “ begotten 
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, 
through the word of God.” That word, through 
which there came the first, faint seminal be- 
ginnings of a holy life, remaineth sure through 

all the stages of subsequent growth. We may 

rely upon “the word of God.” It “liveth and 
abideéh,’ an energising all-enveloping atmo- 
sphere, in which the beautiful young growth will 

be matured. If the centre of love depended 

upon the power of any human ministry, the 

issue would assuredly fail. Our dependence 
would then be built upon a thing enduring only 
through a transient season. Human aid is but 

“as the grass”; and the best of human aid, 

the very glory of it, only as “‘ the flower of grass.” Verse 24 
In the fierce, scorching noontide, the time of 
feverish strain, when we are most in need of ~ 
enriching rest, “the grass withereth, and the flower 
falleth,’ and there is barrenness where we 
yearned to find a soft and healing peace. No; 

not upon flesh must we depend for the evolu- 

tion of the spiritual life. “Our hope is in 
God.” The Lord Himself pervades the processes 

and determines the line of ascending growth. 

“The word of the Lord abideth for ever.” Verse 25 


THE LIVING STONES AND THE 
SPIRITUAL HOUSE 


1 PETER ii. 1-10 


Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and 
hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn 
babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, 
that ye may grow thereby unto salvation ; uf ye have tasted 
that the Lord is gracious: unto whom coming, a living 
stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious, 
ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be 
a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable 
to Goud through Jesus Christ. Because it is contained in 
scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, 
precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be put to 
shame. For you therefore which believe is the preciousness : 
but for such as disbelieve, The stone which the builders 
rejected, the same was made the head of the corner; and, 
A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence ; for they stumble 
at the word, being disobedient : whereunto also they were 
appointed. But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, 
a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye 
may shew forth the eacellencies of Him who called you out 
of darkness into His marvellous light: which in tume past 
were no people, but now are the people of God: which had 
not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 


THERE is a wonderful ascending gradation in 


the earlier portions of this great chapter. It 


begins in the darkness, amid “‘ wickedness” and 
66 


CHAPTER II. 1-10 67 


? 


“guile” and “ hypocrisies,” and it winds its way 
through the wealthy, refining processes of grace, 
until it issues in the “marvellous light” of 
perfected redemption. It begins with indi- 
viduals, who are possessed by uncleanness, 
holding aloof from one another in the bondage 
of “ guile” and “ envies” and “evil speakings” ; 
it ends in the creation of glorious families, 
sanctified communities, elect races, ‘‘ showing 
forth the excellencies” of the redeeming Lord. 
We pass from the corrupt and isolated indi- 
vidual to a redeemed and perfected fellowship. 
We begin with an indiscriminate heap of un- 
clean and undressed stones; we find their con- 
summation in a “spiritual house,” standing 
consistent and majestic in the light of the glory 
of God. We begin with scattered units; we 
end with co-operative communions. The subject 
of the passage is therefore clearly defined. It 
is concerned with the making of true society, 
the creation of spiritual fellowship, the realisa- 
tion of the family, the welding of antagonistic 
units into a pure and lovely communion. 
Where must we begin in the creation of this 
communion? The building of the house, says 
the apostle, must begin in the preparation of 
the stones. If the family is to be glorified, the 
individual must be purified. A choir is no 
richer than its individual voices, and if we wish 


68 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


to enrich the harmony we must refine the con- 
stituent notes. The basis of all social reforma- 
tion is individual redemption. And so I am 
not surprised that the apostle, who is contem- 
plating the creation of beautified brotherhoods, 
should primarily concern himself with the pre- 
paration of the individual. But how are the 
stones to be cleaned and shaped and dressed 
for the house? How is the individual to be 
prepared? By what spiritual processes is he 
to be fitted for larger fellowships and family - 
communion? I think the apostle gives us a 
threefold answer. 

“Tf ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” 
That is the basal clause of the entire chapter. 
Everything begins here. It is no use our 
dreaming of perfected human _ relationships 
until the individual has deliberately tasted 
the things that are Divine. A chastened 
palate in the individual is a primary element 
in the consolidation of the race. There must 
be a personal experimenting with God. There 
must be a willingness to try the. spiritual 
hygiene enjoined in the Gospel of Christ. We 
must “taste and see” what the grace is like 
that is so freely offered to us of God. We 
must taste it, and find out for ourselves its 
healthy and refreshing flavour. What is im- 
plied in the apostle’s figure? In the merely 


CHAPTER Ii. 1-10 69 


physical realm, when we taste a thing, what 
are the implications of the act? When we take 
a thing up critically for the purpose of dis- 
cerning its flavour, there are at any rate two 
elements contained in the method of our ap- 
proach. There is an application of a sense, 
and there is the exercise of the judgment. We 
bring an alertness of palate that we may 
register sensitive perceptions, and we bring an 
alertness of mind that we may exercise a dis- 
criminating judgment. Well, these two elements 
are only symbolic of the equipment that is 
required if we would “taste and see how 
gracious the Lord is.” We need to present to 
the Lord a sensitive sense and a vigilant mind. 
There is no word which is read so drowsily as 
the Word of God. There is no business so 
sluggishly executed as the business of prayer. 
If men would discern the secret flavours of the 
Gospel, they must come to it wide awake, and 
sensitively search for the conditions by which 
its hidden wealth may be disclosed. “Son of 
man, eat that thou findest. ... Then did I eat 
it, and it was in my mouth as honey for sweet- 
ness.” He had tasted and seen. “ Kat that 
thou findest!” Well, the only way in which 
we can eat a message is to obey it. Obedience 
is spiritual consumption; and in the act of 
obedience, in the act of consumption, we discern 


70 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


the wondrous flavours of grace. We are, there- 
fore, to approach the Gospel of our Lord. We 
are to patiently and sensitively realise its con- 
ditions. We are to put ourselves in the attitude 
of obedience, and, retaining a bright and wake- 
ful mind, we shall begin to discern the glories 
of ourredemption. Weshall taste the flavour of 
reconciliation, the fine grace of forgiveness, and 
the exquisite quality of peace. This is the primary 
step in the creation of the family; the individual 
is to taste and appreciate the things of God. 

All delights imply repulsions. All likes necessi- 
tate dislikes. A strong taste for God implies a 
strong distaste for the ungodly. The more refined 
my taste, the more exacting becomes my standard. 
The more I appreciate God, the more shall I de- 
preciate the godless. I do not wonder, therefore, 
that in the chapter before us the “tasting” of 

Verse 1 grace is accompanied by a “‘ putting away” of 
sin. If I welcome the one, I shall “therefore” 
repel the other. The finer my taste, the more 
scrupulous will be my repulsions. Mark the 
ascending refinement in this black catalogue 
of expulsions: “ wickedness, guile, hypocrisies, 
envies, evil speakings!” The list ranges from 
thick, soddened, compact wickedness up to un- 
kindly speech, and Iam so to growin my Divine 
appreciation that I just as strongly repel the 
gilded forms of sin as I do those that savour of 


CHAPTER II. 1-10 71 


the exposed and noisome sewer. The taste of 
grace implies the “ putting away” of sin; and 
therefore the second step in the creation of the 
family is the cleansing of the individual. Is 
the cleansing essential? Let us lay this down 
as a primary axiom in the science of life—there 
can be no vital communion between the unclean. 
Why, we cannot do a bit of successful soldering 
unless the surfaces we wish to solder are 
vigorously scraped of all their filth. I suppose 
that, in the domain of surgery, one of the 
greatest discoveries of the last fifty years has 
been the discovery of dirt, and the influence 
which it has exercised as the minister of sever- 
ance and alienation. It has been found to be 
the secret cause of inflammation, the hidden 
agent in retarded healing, the subtle worker in 
embittered wounds; and now surgical science 
insists that all its operations be performed in 
the most scrupulous cleanliness, and its intensi- 
fied vigilance has been rewarded by pure and 
speedy healings and communions. It is not 
otherwise in the larger science of life. Every 
bit of uncleanness in the individual is a barrier 
to family communion. All dirt is the servant of 
alienation. Itis essential, if we would have strong 
and intimate fellowships, that every member 
be sweet and clean. ‘Therefore put away all 
wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and 


la 


72 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


envies and all evil speakings,” and by purified 
surfaces let us prepare ourselves for spiritual 
communion. 

Verse2 ‘' As newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk.” 
Having tasted of the grace of the Lord, and 
freeing yourselves from the embittering presence 
of sin, adopt an exacting diet—“long for the 
spiritual milk which is without guile.” Feed upon 
the loftiest ideals. Suffer nothing of adulterating 
compromise to enter into your spiritual food. 
Nourish yourselves upon aspirations undefiled. 
Do not let your wine be mingled with water. 
Do not permit any dilution from the suggestions 
of the world. “Long for the spiritual milk 

Verse 2 which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby 
unto salvation.” It is the unadulterated food 
that ministers to growth. It is the high ideal 
which lifts men to the heights. The loftiness of 
one’s aim determines the degree of one’s growth. 
In these matters my spiritual gravitation is 
governed by my personal aspirations, my spirit 
pursues the path and gradient of my desires. 

Here, then, is the threefold preparation of 
the individual for a family life of intimate and 
fruitful fellowship—a personal experience of 
grace, the expulsion from the life of all un- 
cleanness, and the adoption of a rigorous and 
uncompromising ideal. The whole preparatory 
process is begun, continued, and ended in Christ. 


CHAPTER II. 1-10 73 


In Christ the individual is lodged, and in His 
grace, which is all-sufficient, he finds an abun- 
dant equipment for the spacious purpose of his 
perfected redemption. : 
Now, let us assume that the individual is ready 
for the fellowship. We have got the unit of 
the family. We have got the “living stone,” 
cleansed, shaped, dressed, ready to be built into 
the “spiritual house.” How, now, shall the 
society be formed? What shall be its cement ? 
What shall be its binding medium, and the 
secret of its consistency? Here are the “living 
stones”; what shall we do with them? “ Unto 
whom coming . . . as living stones ye are 
built up a spiritual house” “Unto whom 
coming!” The living stones are to find their 
bond of union in the living Christ. The alpha 
of all enduring communion is Christ. We 
cannot prepare the individual stones without 
Christ. We cannot build the individual stones 
into a house without Christ. He is the “ corner 
stone,” and the pervading strength of every 
enduring structure. What is the implication of 
all this? It is this. We cannot have society 
without piety. We may have juxtapositions, 
connections, clubs, fleeting and superficial re- 
lationships, but the only enduring brotherhood 
is the brotherhood which is built upon faith. 
Apart from the Christ there can be no social 


Verses 4, 5 


- 


74 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


cohesion. The Word of God proclaims it, and 
history confirms it. Every preposition seems 
to have been exhausted by the Word of God 
in emphasising the necessity of a fundamental 
relationship with Christ—‘‘in Christ,” “ through 
Christ,” “by Christ,” “with Christ,” “unto 
Christ.” In every conceivable way Christ is 
proclaimed as the all-essential. In seeking to 
create societies we have therefore got to reckon 
with the Christ. We cannot ignore Him. He 
will not be ignored. We either use Him or we 
fall over Him. We use Him and rise into 
strength, or we neglect Him and stumble into 
Verses7,8ruin. We either make Him the “head of the 
corner,” or He becomes our “ stone of stumbling, 
and a rock of offence.” Societies and families and 
nations, which are not built upon the Christ, fall 
to pieces, thrown into ruin by the very “law 
of the spirit of life.” But have not societies 
been built upon the Christ, and yet been far 
from manifesting the glory of a radiant, family 
communion? Look at the sects! Is not Christ 
the corner stone, and yet where is the sweet 
communion? Ah! it is when the different 
communities have got away from the Christ 
that their communion has been destroyed. It 
is when the sects get away from the spirit of 
the Christ, when they become wranglers about © 
a letter, when they are heated by the fever of 


CHAPTER II. 1-10 75 


personal vanity, and lust for the spoils of 
sectarian triumph—it is then that the spiritual 
house collapses, and lies scattered in a heap of 
inhospitable fragments. But when we build 
upon Him, when He, and He only, is “the 
preciousness,” when all our personal aims are 
merged in line with His, when we have the 
Spirit of Christ, then are we bound into a 
gracious communion, into a vital and funda- 
mental unity. And into what is He prepared 
to build us? This chapter is overflowing in 
the wealth of the figures by which it seeks to 
express the glorious mission. He will build us 
into a “spiritual house,’ a spacious home, en- Verse 5 
closing but one tenant, the gracious Spirit of 
God. He will distinguish us as “an elect race,” Verse 9 
moving in the world, yet not of it, standing 
out in strong relief from the discordant and 
fragmentary life by which it is surrounded. 
He will endow us with all the dignities of “a 
royal priesthood,’ having kingly and priestly 
prerogatives, reigning with Christ in the realm 
of the spirit and exercising a powerful ministry 
of intercession in the most holy presence of God. 
He will constitute us “a holy nation,” a people 
whose policies shall be purities, and whose state- 
craft shall just be the enlightened administration 
of large and unselfish minds. This is what our 
God is prepared to make of us, It is a great 


76 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


ideal, but then we have a great Father and 
a great Saviour and a mighty Spirit, and vast 
ideals are native to the very spirit of our re- 
demption. It is a grand house which the Lord 
would build, and if only He had the stones 
the majestic edifice would speedily be reared. 
And what is to be the mission of the glorified 
fellowship? If even two or three are gathered 
together, by common possession of the Spirit 
of Christ, into a sanctified society, what purpose 
is to be achieved by their communion? They 
Verse9 are to ‘shew forth the excellencies of Him who 
called them out of darkness into His marvellous 
light.” The “elect race” will be distinguished 
by its cheeriness, its geniality, its radiant sym- 
pathies, its abounding optimism. It will be of 
little use our professing that we are “called 
into marvellous light” if our society is only the 
home of controversy, or the abode of a brooding 
melancholy and depression. The redeemed 
society is composed of “children of light.” 
Verse 10 We are to prove that “now we are the people 
of God,” that we have been naturalised—or 
shall I say supernaturalised ?—into the kingdom 
of God, and we are to prove it by bringing 
into common affairs the air of a better country, 
a loftier tone, a finer temper, a nobler spirit. 
“Our citizenship” is to be “in heaven,’ and 
we are to “shew forth the excellencies of God” 


CHAPTER II. 1-10 7 


in the lightsomeness and spirituality of His 
people. Such is to be the ministry of the 
spiritual society which our Father will create 
out of His reconciled and sanctified children. 
Such is to be the “ spiritual house,” built up of 
“living stones,” and having as its one and only 
foundation Jesus Christ, our Lord. 


THE MINISTRY OF SEEMLY 
BEHAVIOUR 


1 PETER ii. 11-17 


Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to 
abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul ; 
having your behaviour seemly among the Gentiles; that, 
wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by 
your good works, which they behold, glorify God in the day 
of visitation. Be subject to every ordinance of man for the 
Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto 
governors, as sent by hum for vengeance on evil-doers and for 
praise to them that do well. For so is the will of God, that 
by well-doing ye should put to silence the ignorance of foolish 
men: as free, and not using your freedom for a cloke of 
wickedness, but as bondservants of God. Honour all men. 
Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. 


Tuts is an appeal for the evangelising influences 
of a chaste and winsome character. It is an 
apostolic entreaty to consider the immeasurable 
momentum of a beautiful life. It is a glorifi- 
cation of the silent witness of saintliness. It is 
not given to all men to have the faculty and 
function of the prophet, his clear sight, and his 
power of -fruitful interpretation, - The per- 
78 . 


CHAPTER II. 11-17 We 


suasive, wooing speech of the evangelist is not 
an element in the common endowment. The 
evangelist and the prophet may be only infre- 
quent creations, and their gifts may have only 
a limited distribution. But we may all exercise 
the ministry of beauty. Every man may be an 
ambassador of life, discharging his office through 
the medium of holiness. Every man may be 
an evangelist in the domain of character, dis- 
tributing his influence through the odour of 
sanctity, in seemliness of behaviour, in exquisite 
fitness of speech, in finely finished and well- 
proportioned life. This is a ministry for every- 
body, the apostleship of spjritual beauty. And 
so in the passage before us the apostle is 
engaged in delineating the features of the 
character that tells. He is depicting a forceful 
life. He is exhibiting the behaviour which is 
influential in leading men to reverent thought 
and religious inquiry and spiritual conviction. 
What are these public aspects of the sanctified 
life? By what kind of living can we best 
arouse the interest of the world in the claims 
and kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ ? How may we become powerful evan- 
gelists, even though we have been denied the 
gift of tongues? How may we arrest the world 
in fruitful wonder? Let us seek the answer in 
the apostolic word. 


80 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


Verse11 ‘ Abstain from fleshly lusts.” That is the first 
note in the forceful life. Do not let us so 
narrow its interpretation that the majority of 
us escape the grip of the apostle’s injunction. 
Let us attribute a comprehensive content to 
the unwelcome word “lust.” Lust includes the 
entire army of unclean forces which are an- 
tagonistic to the exalted realm of the spirit. It 
includes not only the carnal desire, but the 
jealous eye and the itching palm. It compre- 
hends every form of heated and feverish motion 
which is destructive of spiritual treasure. 
Fleshly lust is anything in the life which steams 
the windows of the spirit. Fleshly lust is 
therefore inclusive of envy, jealousy, avarice, 
insatiable selfishness, and immoderate ambition. 
“ Abstain from fleshly lusts,” from any excessive 
heat which maintains its fire by consuming the . 
furniture of the soul. 

Now, what is this but a plea for the ascen- 
dency of spirit? It is a plea for the mag- 
nificent passion of moderation, and for the 
imposing grace‘of a noble self-restraint. “ Ab- 
stain from fleshly lusts.” Do not let any fire 
get outside the bars. Do not let the flames 
reach the furniture. Hold everything in its 
place. Suffer no usurpation. Do not let the 
lower supplant the higher. MRuigidly observe 
the distinction of subject and sovereign, and 


CHAPTER II. 11-17 81 


preserve the purity of the throne. Such is the 
all-inclusive meaning of the apostolic counsel. 
In the constitution of man there is a Divine 
order. His powers are arranged in ranks and 
gradations. The science of life is the doctrine 
of gradation; the art of living is the recog- 
nition of gradation. I suppose that George 
Combe did a great service to the cause of 
practical .thinking when, seventy years ago, he 
wrote his work on The Constitution of Man. 
I am not aware that there was anything new 
in the philosophy of the book. It only con- 
firmed the teaching of the entire range of 
philosophy stretching back from his own day 
to the days of Socraté& and Plato. And 
what was the teaching? That the powers of 
the human personality are arranged in heighten- 
ing gradation, and that the secret of beau- 
tiful living consists in awarding to each 
rank its own precise and peculiar value. The 
service rendered by George Combe consisted 
in the attempt to make this philosophy a plain, 
practical rule for common life. I find in the 
resources of my personality regiments of 
diverse powers. I find vital forces, affectional 
forces, social forces, moral forces, spiritual 
forces. I find elements whose kinship is with 
the swine, and I find elements which have the 
lustre and the preciousness of pearls. What is 


82 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


the art of successful and forceful living. “ Give 
not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither 
cast ye your pearls before swine.” Do not 
treat swine and pearls as though they were of 
equal value. Recognise an aristocracy among 
the powers, and to them give the preference 
and the sovereignty. When there are two calls 
in the life, the bark of the dog and a voice 
from the sanctuary, “give not that which is 
holy unto the dogs,” but ever keep the lowest 
under the severe jurisdiction of the highest. 
“ Abstain from fleshly lusts.” Do not allow any 
lower power to prowl about in loose licentious- 
ness. Keep the chain on. “Let your modera- 
tion be known unto all men.” Exercise the 
ministry of a well-ordered life. Let all the 
powers in the life be well drilled, well disciplined, 
healthily ranked, each one in its place, from 
the private soldier up to the commander-in- 
chief. “Abstain from fleshly lusts.” The 
primary characteristic of forceful, influential 
character is the ascendency of the spirit. 

“ Be subject to every ordinance of man for the 
Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as swpreme; 
or unto governors, as sent by him for vengeance 
on evil-doers and for praise to them that do 
well.” That is the second element that tells— 
‘Be subject to every ordinance... to the 
king ... or unto governors!” Is there any 


CHAPTER II. 11-17 83 


suggestion of forcefulness in the counsel? It 
appears to indicate the cringing obedience 
of boneless weaklings. I thought that the 
influential character was conspicuous for its 
beauty. Is there anything of beauty in this 
apparent servility ? John Ruskin has told us 
that one of the primary elements of beauty 
is the element of repose. But he is careful to 
explain that by repose he does not mean the 
weak passivity of a pebble lying upon the 
highway, but the repose of a mountain, with 
its protruding rocks revealing themselves like 
gigantic muscles. It is repose suggestive of 
might, hinting of splendid power in reserve. 
May we translate the axiom into our interpre- 
tation of spiritual beauty? Spiritual beauty 
must not have the repose and passivity of a 
pebble: it must display muscle, and be sug- 
gestive of irresistible strength. Character that 
tells must be the ally of power. Its very sub- 
missions must be indicative of strong nobility. 
Its bendings must not be the bendings of the 
invertebrate, but the voluntary, reasonable 
homage of a splendid will, What, then, is all 
this about, this submitting to ordinances and 
kings and governors? Whatever else it may 
mean, it is not the bending of reeds, but the 
devotion of giants. Here, I think, is the secret. 
A Christian man is one who clearly recognises 


Une 


84 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


the necessity of social order. The sanctity of 
society is a cardinal element in his faith. The 
hallowing of human relationship is not one 
whit behind the hallowing of himself. The 
ultimate purpose of redemption is to make an 
orderly family out of a disorderly race. The 
Christian will not stand aloof from his fellows. 
He will not walk the lonely way of isolation, or 
assume an attitude of selfish aggression. He 
will not maintain a stern individualism, in which 
the claims and rights of others are ignored. He 
will recognise the hallowedness of social fellow- 
ships, and he will strongly accept his social 
obligations. He will bend himself to the dis- 
charge of civic duties, and put his shoulder 
beneath the responsible burden of national life. 
He will fit himself into the social order, into the 
body corporate, and he will willingly share his 
blood in the common life. 

If this be evangelistic character, the character 
that tells upon “the Gentiles,” then Christian 
life is not perfected and beautified where the 
hallowing of the social order is ignored. When 
civic duty is neglected, and national obligation 
is overlooked, the fair circle of spiritual devotion 
is broken. “Be subject to every ordinance 
of man for the Lord’s sake .. . tothe king... 
or unto governors.” Bend your strength into 
an intelligent obedience which will be creative 


CHAPTER II. 11-17 85 


of a larger and more fruitful corporate life. I 
have no personal doubt as to what we should do 
with kings and governors if their rule minister 
to moral chaos and disorder. The sovereignty 
is only hallowed when it works to hallowed 
ends. If this predominant purpose is violated 
by the supreme king or governor, a man’s very 
reverence for social sanctities will transform him 
into arebel. It was because our fathers were 
possessed by hallowed civic instincts, and by a 
burning eagerness for pure and righteous cor- 
porate life, that they hurled Charles I. from the 
throne, and in his rejection and dethronement 
pledged their souls to a deepened devotion to 
the sovereignty of God. A primary character- 
istic of forceful, evangelistic character is the 
serious recognition of the sanctity of corporate 
life. 

“As free, and not using your freedom for a cloke Verse 16 
of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.’ Here 
is another aspect of the influential life—“ Using 
your freedom... as bondservants.” All privi- 
lege is used with a sense of responsibility. 
All exercise is taken “as ever in the great Task- 
master’s eye.” No freedom is permitted to 
become licence. Every liberty is under the 
dominion of a fine restraint. Why, a sense of 
responsibility and restraint is essential even to 
the appreciation of freedom itself. Restraint is 


86 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


always creative of refined perceptions. The 
ascetic can discern finer flavours than the 
glutton. The man who puts reins upon his 
appetite has a more delightful appreciation 
of his food. He must be a bondslave to 
appreciate his freedom. It is even so with 
every manner of freedom. It is only re- 
sponsible exercise that discovers their luxurious 
essence. Licence, in any kind of freedom, 
works to coarseness, to injury, and to waste. 
Is this word altogether inopportune for our 
own day? Are there no alluring freedoms 
which may entice us into licence? Freedom of 
thought! “Use your freedom as the bond- 
servants of God.” No man has a right to think 
as he likes. No man has a right to think about 
the unworthy, or to contemplate the unclean. 
In the domain of the mind, it is the man who 
angles in narrow waters who has the wealthiest 


haul, Freedom of speech! ‘“ Use your freedom 
as the bondservants of God.” Exercise it with 
severe restrictions. ‘Let no communication 


proceed out of your mouth but what is edifying.” 
In all these freedoms the element of responsi- 
bility is the saving salt, and sometimes the 
element of responsibility will cause the freedom 
to be unused. If a man resign his freedom to 
take intoxicating drink that he may the better 
minister to an imperilled brother, I cannot 


CHAPTER II 11-17 87 


but think that in reality he is no bondslave, 
but the Lord’s freeman, and that his deed will 
not appear unworthy when it is_ placed 
in the searching rays of the Eternal Light. 
In the character that tells, the responsible 
use of freedom is a great and influential 
factor. 

“ Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear Verse 11 
God. Honour the king.” “Honour all men!” 
The injunction includes the entire circle of 
human relationships. “Honour!” ‘ Fear!” 
“Love!” What do the counsels mean except 
this—that our entire life is to to be passed in 
the exercise of an all-inclusive reverence. We 
are to move about in the spirit of homage, 
expecting that at any time, and anywhere, we 
may come upon crowned sovereignties before 
which it will be well for us to bow in serious 
and grateful regard. If we are irreverent, 
monarchs will be continually passing us, but 
they will not be known. They will pass “like 
ships in the night.” Reverence is the very 
spirit of perception. frivolity has no eyes, 
and so it bestows no honour. Censoriousness 
is blind, and so is never aroused into love. 
Pride walks with a heavy veil. The cocksure 
never rest in the deep quietness of the Divine 
certainties. It is the man who walks in 
reverence, the man who feels the mystery 


88 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


of all things, whether he be contemplating 
common men or kings or God, who enters 
into the secret treasure-house, and discovers 
unsuspected wealth. We should see more in 
one another if the angel of reverence dwelt 
near the springs of our life. Itis the man who 
stands in reverence before flowers, and little 
children, an@ his own loved ones, and his leaders, 
and his God, to whom are revealed the secret 
essences which turn life into a garden of 
unspeakable delights. 

These, then, are some of the characteristics of 
the “‘seemly behaviour,” which, working through 
the medium of holiness, proclaim the glory of 
God—the ascendency of spirit, the aspiration 
after social sanctity, the responsible use of 
freedom, and the ceaseless exercise of reverence. 
These are the primary aspects of the forceful life 
which works mightily in the evangelisation of 
the world. As to what would be the issues of 
such a life the apostle proclaims a triumphant 

Verse12hope. ‘The Gentiles,” the great unleavened 
mass of men, “by your good works, which they 
behold,” shall “glorify God im the day of 
visitation.” The beautiful life is to raise their 
thoughts in homage to the glorious God. 
When they behold the Divine realised in the 
human, they too are to be wooed into heavenly 
fellowships. They are to he wooed, not by the 


CHAPTER II. 11-17 89 


eloquence of our speech, but by the radiance 

of our behaviour. By the imposing grace of 
noble livmg we are to “put to silence the Verse 15 
ignorance of foolish men,” and that silence will 

be for them the first stage in a life of aspiring 
consecration. 


THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST 


1 PETER il. 21-25 


For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered 
Sor you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His 
steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: 
who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He 
suffered, threatened not ; but committed Himself to Him that 
judgeth righteously : who His own self bare our sins in His 
body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might 
live unto righteousness ; by whose stripes ye were healed. 
For ye were going astray like sheep; but are now returned 
unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. 


Verses ‘Christ also suffered . . . who did no sin.” 
21,22 The two phrases must be conjoined if either 
is to receive an adequate interpretation. The 
earlier term discloses its significance by the light 

of the later term. If we would know the content 

and intensity of -the suffering, we must know 

the character of the sufferer. “Christ also 
Verse 21 suffered.” The word is indeterminate until I 
know the quality of His life. Suffering is a 
relative term. The measure of its acuteness is 
determined by the degree of our refinement. 
The same burden weighs unequally on different 

90 : 


CHAPTER II. 21-25 91 


men. Lower organisation implies diminished 
sensitiveness The higher the organisation the 
finer becomes the nerve, and the finer the nerve 
the more delicate becomes the exposure to 
pain. The more exquisite the refinement, the 
more exquisite is the pang. 

I do not limit the principle to the domain 
of the flesh. It is a matter of familiar know- 
ledge that in the body itis regnant. There are 
bodies in which the nerves seem atrophied or 
still-born, and there are bodies in which the 
nerves abound like masses of exquisitely sensi- 
tive pulp. But the diversity runs up into the 
higher endowments of the life, ino the asthetic 
and affectional and spiritual domains of the 
being. The man of little wsthetic refinement 
knows nothing of the aches and pains created 
by ugliness and discord. The rarer organisa- 
tion is pierced and wounded by every jar and 
obliquity. It is even so in the realm of the 
affections. Where affection burns low, neglect 
and inattention are unnoticed; where love burns 
fervently, neglect is a martyrdom. If we rise 
still higher into the coronal dominions of the 
life, into the domain of moral and spiritual 
sentiments, we shall find that the degree of 
rectitude and holiness determines the area of 
exposure to the wounding, crucifying ministry 
of vulgarity and sin. 


92 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


“Christ also suffered ... who did no sin.” 
We must interpret the rarity and refinement of 
His spirit if we would even faintly realise the 

Verse 22 intensity of His sufferings. ‘“ Who did no sin, 
neither was guile found in His mouth.” “No 
sin!” The fine, sensitive membrane of the soul 
had in nowise been scorched by the fire of 
iniquity. ‘No sin!” He was perfectly pure and 
healthy. No power had been blasted by the 
lightning of passion. No nerve had been 
atrophied by the wasting blight of criminal 
neglect. The entire surface of His life was as 
finely sensitive as the fair, healthy skin of a 

Verse 22 little child. “ Neither was guile found im His 
mouth.” There was no duplicity. There were 
no secret folds or convolutions in His life con- 
cealing ulterior motives. There was nothing 
underhand. His life lay exposed in perfect 
truthfulness and candour. The real, inner mean- 
ing of His life was presented upon a plain 
surface of undisturbed simplicity. “No sin!” 
Therefore nothing blunted or benumbed. “No 
guile!” Therefore nothing hardened by the 
effrontery of deceit. I ask you to try to 
imagine the immense area which such a life 
laid open to the wounding implements of un- 
faithfulness and sin. 

Now, it is a Scriptural principle that all sin is 
creative of insensitiveness, ‘The wages of sin 


CHAPTER II. 21-25 93 


is death,” deadened faculty, impaired perception. 
“His leaf shall wither!” Sin is a blasting 
presence, and every fine power shrinks and 
withers in the destructive heat. Every spiritual 
delicacy succumbs to its malignant touch. I 
suppose that Scripture has drawn upon every 
sense for analogies in which to express the 
ravages of sin in the region of perception. Sin 
impairs the sight, and works towards blindness. 
Sin benumbs the hearing and tends to make men 
deaf. Sin perverts the taste, causing men to 
confound the sweet with the bitter, and the bitter 
with the sweet. Sin hardens the touch, and 
eventually renders a man “ past feeling.” All 
these are Scriptural analogies, and their common 
significance appears to be this—sin blocks and 
chokes the fine senses of the spirit; by sin we 
are desensitised, rendered imperceptive, and the 
range of our correspondence is diminished. Sin 
creates callosity. It hoofs the spirit, and so 
reduces the area of our exposure to pain. 
“Who did no sin!” No part of His being 
had been rendered insensitive. No perception 
had been benumbed by any callous overgrowth. 
Put the slightest pressure upon the Master’s life, 


and you awoke an exquisite nerve. “And they 
disputed one with another who should be. 
greatest.” .. . “And Jesus perceiving their 


thoughts!” How sensitive the perception! The 


94 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


touch of a selfish thought crushed upon the 
nerve, and stirred it into agony. Such is the 
sensitiveness of sinlessness, and in this vulgar, 
selfish, and sinful world it could not be but that 
the Sinless One should be “a Man of Sorrows,” 
and that He should pass through pangs and 
martyrdoms long before He reached the appal- 
ling midnight of Gethsemane and Calvary. 
“ Christ also suffered . . . who did no sin.” 
Now, let us watch this sensitive Sufferer, so 
quick and apprehensive in every nerve, and let 
us contemplate the nature of some of the suffer- 
Verse 23 ings He endured. ‘“ He was reviled.” Give the 
word its requisite intensity. He was vilified, 
vituperated, slandered! What was the shape of 
the reviling ? He was denouncedasa liar! “ He 
deceiveth the people.” Why, even with our blunt 
and benumbed consciousness, there is no charge 
like falsehood for tearing us with poignant 
pain. There is no word which pierces to the 
quick and stabs the very marrow, like the awful 
word “liar!” But to the Pure One, with His 
unimpaired perception, and in whose life the 
truth lay as fair and white as newly fallen 
snow, the charge of falsehood would create un- 
utterable pain. “Christ also suffered,” being 
reviled. What was the shape of the revilings ? 
“This man blasphemeth!” This meek and 
lowly Being, walking ever in the stoop of 


CHAPTER II. 21-25 95 


reverence, seeking ever to be well pleasing to 
His Father, now charged, by those He came to 
save, with irreverent and sacrilegious speech. 
His sacred ministry belied as profanity! ‘He 
hath a devil, and is mad!” “He casteth out 
devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils!” 
This holy and sensitive Christ, whose one 
evangel was to tell men of His own sweet 
companionship with the Father, and whose one 
mission was to raise them into the delights of 
the same eternal fellowship, now charged with 
living in league with the devil, the evil despotism 
from which He sought to deliver them! It isthe 
proof of our own benumbment if we do not feel 
that such accusations resulted in spiritual cruci- 
fixion. “He was reviled ... He suffered.” The Verse 93 
suffering covers the whole scope of the Passion, 
from the dull pangs of the physical crucifixion 
to the sharper and more terrible pangs of the 
crucifixion of the spirit. Now, I say, take this 
Man of the sinless, guileless life; let Him move 
amid the chaos of selfishness, the riot of lust- 
fulness, the cruelty of thoughtlessness, the chill- 
ing insults of studied neglect and contempt ; 
let Him be made the victim of incivility; let 
there be withheld from Him the common 
courtesies; let Him be denied the hospitable 
kiss, and the kindly gift of water for His tired 
feet; let rongh men roughly handle Him; let 


96 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


them mock Him and deride Him; and as the 
very consummation of coarse vulgarity, let them 
go up to this Man of exquisite refinement, and 
spit in His face, and then let them subject Him 
to all the howling, laughing brutality of the 
crucifixion,—I say, watch all this, gaze steadily 
upon it, look long upon all its repellent offensive- 
ness, and while you keep in mind the exquisite 
sensitiveness of the Sufferer, you will enter 
with a little more power of interpretation into 
that familiar cry, “‘ Behold, and see if there be 
any sorrow like unto My sorrow!” “ His visage 
was so marred more than any man.” “He was 
a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” 


We may not know, we cannot tell, 
What pains He had to bear. 


How did the Lord endure His sufferings ? 
Verse 23 “‘ When He was reviled, He reviled not again.” 
The bitter attack was not creative of bitter — 
retaliation. The hurled venom did not poison 
His springs. Amid the environing bitterness 
the Man of Nazareth remained sweet. I have 
sometimes heard bitter retaliation justified on 
the plea that even the sweetest milk will 
turn sour under the influence of a prolonged 
storm. I am doubtful of the accuracy of the 
physical analogy, but I am confident of the 
inaccuracy of the spiritual inference. It is 


CHAPTER II. 21-25 97 


possible for “the milk of human kindness” 
to be kept sweet in the most tempestuous 
weather. ‘“ When He was reviled, He reviled 
not again.” Is the example too remote? 
Come down, then, from the high, cool altitudes 
of the Master’s abode, and let us see if the 
milk can be kept sweet in the presumably 
more sultry vales of common men. Here is 
a man with a stormy, tempestuous life,—‘‘in 
stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent. 
. .. Of the Jews five times received I forty 
stripes save one.... Thrice was I beaten 
with rods, once was I stoned... in weari- 
ness, in painfulness, in watchings often, in 
hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold 
and nakedness!” Did the milk keep sweet? 
All these things he suffered of the Jews. When 
he was reviled, did he revile again? “TI could 
wish myself accursed from Christ for my 
brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh!” 
“My heart’s desire and prayer to God for 
Israel is, that they may be saved!” I thought 
that out of the heart of the tempest I might 
hear the angry shout of retaliation; imstead 
of which I hear a sweet and self-forgetful 
prayer, sounding like silvery village bells in 
a night of storm. The spirit was not em- 
bittered. The milk was not soured. The 
apostle was just the Master over again. “ When Vere 23 


98 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


Verse 23 He suffered, He threatened not.” There was 
no violent menace in the Master’s life. There 
was no dark, fateful hinting of a day of 
vengeance. There was no sullen, angry biding 
of His time for the season of retaliation. He 
remained quiet, unembittered, sweet, and ‘“ com- 
mitted Himsel;,” in happy confidence, and with 
ever-increasing assurance, “to Him that judgeth 
righteously.” 

Such was the Sufferer, such were His suffer- 
ings, and such the way in which He endured 
them. What were the fruits of this tran- 
scendent endurance? If I were even to attempt 
to give an exhaustive reply to the great inquiry, 
I should have to quote the New Testament 
record from end to end. On every page one 
can find the enumeration) and catalogue of 
the gracious fruits. Their proclamation is the 
New Testament glory. But just look at the 
pregnant summary given by the apostle Peter 
in the passage of our text. “Christ also suffered 

Verse 24. . . that we might live.” What is the signifi- 
cance of the word? Out of His sufferings 
there issues a vital energy for the reviving 
and enlivening of the race. It is evidence 
whose testimony cannot be ignored that 
when the heart is crushed with sin, and is 
sinking under the burden, it turns its eyes to 
those scenes in the Saviour’s life where His 


CHAPTER II. 21-25 99 


sufferings are most abounding. Men in whose 
vitals the poison of the devil is dwelling, and 
whose spiritual force is ebbing away, do not 
tarry at Bethlehem, or even upon the great 
Mount where the great teaching was given. 
They make their way to Gethsemane and 
Calvary. It is when we are feeling respectable 
that Calvary has no allurement. But when the 
heart is bleeding in unclean tragedy, when life 
ceases to be a debating society topic, a light 
subject of controversy for a quiet summer’s eve, 
when the burden of sin weighs down upon us with 
heavy and intolerable load, it is then we follow 
the pilgrim band along the well-trodden way 
to Gethsemane and Calvary, that in the fellow- 
ship of the august Sufferer we might discover 
the vital energy of a restored and reinvigorated 
life. ‘Christ also suffered ... that we might 
live.” “By whose stripes ye were healed.” Do Verse 24 
not let us overlook the experience because 
we cannot find an explanation. Do not let us 
reject the fact because we cannot contrive a 
theory. The sorest places in human life, the 
raw, festering wounds of indwelling sin, can 
only be remedially touched by the healing 
influence of His stripes. The miracle is re- 
peated every day. The sufferer from sin turns 
for release to the suffering Christ. There is a 
strange allurement about “the Man of Sorrows” 


100 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


to which the common heart bears witness. “I, 
if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me!” 
The word proclaims the magnetic influence of 
Verse 25 the uplifted, suffering Christ. “ Ye were going 
astray like sheep ; but are now returned” ; ye have 
come hcm> again, wooed and allured by the 
wondrous spectacle of a suffering God! Such are 
the issues of the calm endurance of this sensi- 
tive Sufferer—vital energies, full of reviving 

and healing ministry, wooing us back to God. 
And now this unspeakable ministry of suffer- 
ing is proclamed as an example to all men. 
Verse 21 ‘‘ Christ also suffered, leaving you an example, 
that ye should follow His steps.” Do not let 
us shrink from the tremendous sequence. If 
the calm, strong endurance of the Master has 
been creative of transcendently blessed ministry, 
so our endurance will be productive of vital 
powers which will work for the enrichment of 
roe the race. “ Do well.” Have “ conscience toward 
God.” “Follow His steps.” Let no revilings 
make thee desist, let no sufferings turn thee 
sour, and thy very endurance shall make thee 
a large contributor to the co-operative forces 
of the kingdom of God. To remain sweet 
under coarse reviling is to be a fountain of 
healing energy. To remain unselfishly prayerful 
in the presence of menace is to bring currents of 
heavenly air into the atmosphere of common 


CHAPTER II. 21-25 101 


life. All fine endurance is a force of renewal, 
which contributes its quota of energy to the 
ultimate emancipation of the race. I am glad 
that this superlative passage springs out of 
counsel to a slave. I am glad that these 
stupendous heights are connected by a well- 
made road with this very lowly estate. I am 
glad that the endurance of Jesus is placarded 
before a slave. The apostle tells the slave that 
he too may be an element and factor in the 
universal emancipation and redemption. The 
slave may accomplish more by calm endurance 
than by hasty, precipitate revolt. Fine, noble 
endurance is energy—an energy which raises 
the common temperature, and to raise the 
temperature will more effectively remove the 
burden of icy bondage than the hasty attacks 
of ten thousand men armed with the pickaxe 
of premature revolt. Let us do well; let us 
have conscience towards God; let us endure, if 
need be, the contradiction of sinners; let us 
persist even through sufferings, and, by the 
very nobility of our endurance, we shall be 
leavening the world with the emancipating 
forces of the Christian redemption. “ Christ 
also suffered, leaving you an example.” “The 
things which happened unto me have turned 
out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel.” 
“Tf we suffer we shall also reign with Him.” 


WIVES AND HUSBANDS 


1 PETER iii. 1-8 


In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your own 
husbands ; that, even if any obey not the word, they may 
without the word be gained by the behaviour of their wives ; 
beholding your chaste behaviour coupled with fear. Whose 
adorning let rt not be the outward adorning of plaiting the 
hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on ap- 
parel ; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the 
incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is 
in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner 
aforetime the holy women also, who hoped in God, adorned 
themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: as 
Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose children 
ye now are, if ye do well, and are not put in fear by any 
terror. Ye husbands, in like manner, dwell with your wives 
according to knowledge, giving honour unto the woman, as 
unto the weaker vessel, as being also joint-heirs of the grace 
of life; to the end that your prayers be not hindered. 
Finally, be ye all likeminded, compassionate, loving as 
brethren, tenderhearted, humbleminded. 


Wuezz shall we begin our interpretation of this 
influential passage? The starting-place of the 
exposition has much to do with the character 
and quality of its issues. Everybody knows the 
starting-place of a superficial and short-sighted 


curiosity. It fastens its primary attention upon 
102 


CHAPTER III. 1-8 103 


the words “subjection,” “fear,” “ obedience.” 
These are the words which are regarded as the 
points of emphasis. Around these words the 
interest gathers and culminates. The rest of 
the broad passage is secondary, and takes its 
colour from their determination. I propose to 
reverse the order. We will begin with the 
broad significance of the passage, and then 
reason backwards to the content of the indi- 
vidual words. We will gaze upon the entire 
face, and then take up the interpretation of 
single features. If we begin with the words 
“subjection,” “ fear,” “ obedience,” with no help- 
ful clue of interpretation, we shall have a 
perverted and destructive conception of the 
dignity of womanhood. But if we begin with 
the broad, general portraiture of the wife and 
the husband, their mutual relationships will 
stand revealed as in the clear light of a radiant 
noon. In the passage for exposition the apostle 
delineates some of the spiritual characteristics 
of the ideal husband and the ideal wife. Let 
us quietly gaze at the portraiture, if perchance 
some of its beauty may steal into our spirits, 
and hallow common life with the light and 
glory of the blessed God. 


Where does the apostle begin in his por- 
traiture of the ideal wife? “ Chaste beaviour.” Verse 2 


104 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


The first element in worthy womanhood is the 
wearing of the white robe. The spirit is per- 
fectly clean. “The King’s daughter is all 
glorious within.” All her powers consort 
together like a white-robed angel-band. In 
every room of her life one can find the fair 
linen, “clean and white.” In the realm of the 
imagination her thoughts hover and _ brood 
like white doves. In the abode of motive 
her aspirations are as sweet and pure as the 
breathings of a little child. In the home of 
feeling, her affections are as incorruptible as 
rays of light. If you move among the powers 
of her speech, on the threshold of her lips you 
will find no stain, no footprint of “anything 
that defileth or worketh abomination, or maketh 
a lie.” In the inner life of the ideal woman, no 
unclean garment can be found, for everything 
wears the white robe. The spirit is “chaste.” 
But chasteness is more than cleanliness. The 
stone is not only white, it is chiselled into 
delicacy. Character is not left in the rough; it 
is refined into thoughtful finish. The substance 
is not only pure, it is worked into beauty. It is 
not only true in matter, it is consummated in 
exquisite manner. If the analogy of purified 
womanhood is to be found in the whiteness of 
the snow, its finish is to be found in the graceful 
curves and forms of the snowdrift. ‘‘Chaste 


CHAPTER III. 1-8 105 


behaviour” is just the refined purity of all the 
activities of the inner life. 

Refined purity is therefore the primary ele- 
ment in the ideal wife, and it is the first essential 
in human communion. There can be no vital 
communion where both the communicants are 
not clean. When dirt intrudes, fellowship is de- 
stroyed. Corruption is the antagonist of cohesion. 
“The wicked shall not stand.” Their very un- 
cleanness eats up the consistency and brings the 
structure to ruin. When uncleanness breaks 
out in the family circle, the family cannot 
“stand.” If envy take up its abode, or 
jealousy, or any type of carnal desire, the fair 
and beautiful circle is broken. The great family 
of the redeemed, “the multitude whom no man 
can number,” are one in the wearing of the 
“white robe.” Their consistency and solidarity 
are found in their purity, and in the absence 
of all the alienating forces of uncleanness and 
defilement. It is not otherwise in the relation- 
ship of husband and wife. The wearing of 
the white robe is the primary essential to 
their communion. ‘“ Keep thy garments always 
white”! Does the ideal appear insuperable ? 
Then let me proclaim another word: “They 
shall walk with Me in white!” That is not a 
command; the words enshrine a promise. 
“Walking with Me, they shall be white.” The 


106 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


whiteness is the result of the companionship. 
“T will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye 
shall be clean.” The sprinkling is not a transi- 
tory act; it is a permanent shower. The forces 
of the cleansing Spirit are sprayed upon our 
powers just as the antiseptic is sprayed upon 
the exposed wound to ward off and destroy the 
subtle forces of contamination and defilement. 
To be a companion of the Lord is to have the 
assurance of purity. ‘The fear of the Lord 
is clean.” 
What is the second element in the portraiture 
Verse 4of the ideal wife? “A meek and quiet spirit.” 
There is nothing cringing or servile in the 
disposition. It is infinitely removed from the 
saddening, paralysing obeisance of the slave. 
“T am meek,” cries the Master; and can we 
detect anything fawning or fearful about 
the Son of Man? In the interpretation 
of the great word, let us eliminate from our 
minds every suggestion of servility and ser- 
vitude. Meekness is just the opposite to 
self-ageressiveness and violent self-assertion. 
Meekness is just self-suppression issuing in 
beneficent service. Meekness does not tread 
the narrow path of a selfish ambition, tending 
only to some self-enriching end. Meekness takes 
broad, inclusive ways to large and unselfish ends. 
Meekness seeks the enrichment of life through 


CHAPTER III. 1-8 107 


the comprehension of the many. Self-assertion 
may appear to succeed, but it never really wins. 
It may gain a telescope, but it loses an eye. It 
may win an estate, but it loses the sense of 
the landscape. It may gain in goods what it 


loses in power. “It may gain the whole world, 
and lose its own soul.” The meek are the only 
true “heirs.” They gain an ever finer per- 


ceptiveness, and life reveals itself in richer 
perfumes and flavours and essences with every 
passing day. “The meek shall inherit the 
earth.” 

“A meek and quiet spirit.” A quiet spirit! 
The opposite to that which we describe as 
“loud.” The “ loud” woman is the ostentatious 
woman, moving about in broad sensations. ‘He 
shall not cry” ; there was nothing loud about Him, 
quite an absence of the scream: “neither shall 
any man hear His voice in the streets”; there 
shall be nothing about Him of the artifice 
of self-advertisement. The Master was never 
“loud,” and so He was a most winsome and 
welcome companion. The “loud” woman is 
never companionable. The difference between 
a “loud” woman and a woman of “quiet 
spirit” is the difference between fireworks and 
sunshine, between a quiet, genial glow and 
a crackling bonfire. The apostle contrasts 
the “quiet spirit” with the love of sensational 


108 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


attire and loud adornments, the disposition 
to arrest attention by vulgar dazzle and dis- 
play. The disposition is a fatal foe to real 
communion. After all, we cannot bask in the 
glare of fireworks; we rejoice in the quiet 
sunlight. Home is made of quiet materials, 
and one of the elements in the constitution 
of beautiful wedded fellowship is “a meek and 
quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of 
great price.” 
What is the third element in the por- 
Verse 6 traiture of the ideal wife? ‘Not put in fear 
by any terror.” How shall I describe the 
disposition? Let me call it the grace of 
repose. “Not put in fear by any terror.” 
They are not the victims of “sudden, wild 
alarms.” They are not easily aroused into the 
fearfulness which is so often the parent of 
thoughtlessness. They have reposefulness of 
spirit. Now, if I may be allowed to say it, I 
think this fearfulness is more characteristic of 
women than of men. There are larger enemies 
inside the gates of men’s gardens; but in the 
garden of woman’s life, I think that the heat 
of fearfulness and the slugs of worry and fret- 
fulness will be found to be more abounding. 
Fearfulness is destructive of the deeper delights 
of human fellowship. Restfulness is essential 
to deep and fruitful communion. 


CHAPTER II. 1-8 109 


What are the lineaments of the ideal husband ? 
“Dwell with your wives according to knowledge.” Verse 
How shall we describe the characteristic ? 
Let us call it the atmosphere of reasonableness. 
“ According to knowledge.” We may grasp its 
content by proclaiming its opposite: “ Dwell 
with your wives according to ignorance. Just 
walk in blindness. Don’t look beyond your own 
desires. Let your vision be entirely intro- 
spective and microscopic. Never exercise your 
eyes in clear and comprehensive outlook. Dwell 
in ignorance!” No, says the apostle, “dwell 
according to knowledge.” Keep your eyes 
open. Let reason be alert and active. Let all 
your behaviour be governed by a sweet reason- 
ableness. Don’t let appetite determine a doing. 
Don’t let thy personal wish have the first and 
last word. Exalt thy reason! Give sovereignty 
to thy reason! Be thoughtful and unceasingly 
considerate. It is the absence of this prevailing 
spirit of reasonableness which has marred and 
murdered many a bright and fair-promising 
communion. “He is not really bad at heart, 
but he doesn’t thmk!” That is the fatal defect. 
He does not think! He dwells according to 
ignorance ; his reason is asleep, and the beautiful, 
delicate tie of wedded fellowship is smitten, 
wounded, and eventually destroyed. 

“ Giving honour unto the woman, as unto the Verse7 


110 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


weaker vessel.” Giving honour, paying homage, 
bowing down in the spirit in the posture of 
serious and religious regard. To the atmosphere 
of reasonableness we are to add the temper of 
reverence. Now, see the wealthy suggestiveness 
of this. Reverence implies at least two things— 
perception and homage. We must first see a 
thing before we can pay itregard. We must first 
behold a dignity before we can pay homage to it. 
Homage implies perception: perception implies 
eyes. How are the seeing eyes obtained? Let 
us lay this down as an axiom: it is only the 
lofty in character that can discern the spiritual 
dignities in life. Men of little nature cannot 
apprehend spiritual magnitudes. John Ruskin 
has told his countrymen that they are incapable 
of depicting and portraying the sublime, because 
they cannot see it! You know his explanation. 
He says there isin the Englishman’s character 
an element of burlesque which has shortened 
and dimmed his sight, and rendered him in- 
capable of discerning the superlative glories of 
far-off spiritual heights. Whatever may be the 
quality of the inference, the basal principle is 
true. Perception implies elevation, and we 
* cannot see the enduring dignities of life unless 
we ourselves are dignified. To truly revere a 
woman, a man himself must be good. He must 
dwell on high. He must abide in the heavenly 


CHAPTER III. 1-8 111 


places in Christ. He must bathe his eyes in 
heaven, and he will acquire a power of per- 
ception which will discern in his wife, and in 
all womankind, spiritual dignities which will 
preserve his soul in the abiding posture of 
lowly and reverent regard. The husband will 
see in his wife a “yjoint-heir of the grace of Verse7 
life,” and in that perception every relation-_ 
ship is hallowed and enriched. The master who 
sees in his servant a “ joint-heir of the grace 
of life,” and the servant who perceives in his 
master a similarly enthroned dignity, will create 
between themselves a relationship which will 
be the channel of “the river of the water of 
life.” ‘Give honour unto the woman,” and to 
preserve that sense of reverent perceptiveness, 
a man must dwell in “the secret place of the 
most High.” 

What is the last lineament in this ideal 
portraiture ? How else must the husband live? 
“That your prayers be not hindered.” His Verse7 
conduct has to be the helpmeet of his prayers. 
There has to be no discord between the one and 
the other. The spirit of his supplications is to 
be found in his behaviour. When he has been 
into the garden of the Lord in lonely com- 
munion, the fragrance of the flowers has to cling 
to his garments when he moves about in the 
common life of the home. Here is a man, living 


112 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


out his own prayers, taking the spirit of his 
communion into ordinary conduct, so demeaning 
himself that his highest aspirations may receive 
fulfilment. Whatever he prays for he seeks 
to be, finding a pertinent duty in every supplica- 
tion. Who would not covet such a companion- 
ship? The character of the ideal husband is 
just a beautiful commingling of reasonableness 
and reverence, manifesting itself im conduct 
which is in harmony with the range and aspira- 
tions of his prayers. 


Here, then, are the spiritual portraitures of 
the wife and the husband: on the one hand, the 
robe of purity, the ornament of modesty, the 
grace of repose; on the other hand, an atmo- 
sphere of reasonableness, the temper of reverence, 
and the conformity of conduct and prayer. 
What, now, in the light of such relationships, 
can be the content of such terms as “ subjection,” 
“obedience,” ‘‘fear” ? The partners are a wife, 
clothed in purity, walking in modesty, with a 
reposefulness of spirit which reflects the very 
glory of God; and a husband, walking with 
his wife according to knowledge, bowing before 
her in reverence, and pervading all his behaviour 
with the temper of his secret communion with 
the Lord. There is no room for lordship, there 
is no room for servility. The subjection of the 


CHAPTER III. 1-8 113 


one is paralleled by the reverence of the other. 
I say there is no lordship, only eager helpful- 
ness; there is no subjection, only the delightful 
ministry of fervent affection. The relationship 
is a mutual ministry of honour, each willing to 
be lost in the good and happiness of the other. 
Wherefore, ‘‘ subject yourselves one to the other 
in the fear of Christ,” that in the communion of 
sanctified affection you may help one another into 
the light and joy and blessedness of the Christian. 


BE PITIFUL 
1 PETER iii. 8 


Finally, be ye all likeminded, compassionate, loving as 
brethren, tenderhearted, humbleminded. 
“Br prtrrut!” Here the standard of authority 
is set up in the realm of sentiment, and 
obedience is demanded in the domain of 
feeling! I did not anticipate that the Christian 
imperative would intrude into the kingdom of 
the feelings. I thought that feelings would 
lie quite outside the sphere of authority. I 
thought that feelings could not be made to 
order, and yet here is an order in which their 
creation is commanded! “Be pitiful!” I 
could have understood a commandment which 
dealt with the external incidents and manifesta- 
tions of life. I should not have been surprised 
had there been laid upon me the obligation of 
hospitality—hospitality may be commanded. 
But then, hospitality need not touch the border- 
lands of feeling. Hospitality may be generous 


and plentiful, and yet noble and worthy feeling 
114 


CHAPTER III. 8 115 


may be absent. Hospitality may be a matter 
of form, and therefore it can be done to order. 
I should not have been surprised had I been 
commanded to show beneficence. Beneficence 
may be exercised while sentiment is numb. It 
is possible to have such a combination as cal- 
lous prodigality. Beneficence may therefore be 
created by authority. But here in my text 
the imperative command enters the secret 
sanctuary of feeling. It is not concerned with 
external acts: it is concerned with internal 
disposition. It is not primarily a service which 
is commanded, but a feeling. But can feelings 
be made to order? Charity can: can pity? 
Labour can: can love? “This is My command- 
ment, that ye love one another.” “ Love one 
another with a pure heart fervently.” “Be 
kindly affectioned one to another.” “Be pitiful.” 
The order is clear and imperative: can I obey 
it? Authority commands me to be pitiful: 
then can pity be created by an immediate 
personal fiat? Can I say to my soul, “Soul, 
the great King commands thee to be arrayed 
in pity; bring out, therefore, the tender senti- 
_ ment and adorn thyself with it as with a robe”? 
Or can a man say to himself, “Go to; this day I 
will array myself in love, and I will distribute 
influences 6f sweet and pure affection! I will 
unseal my springs of pity, and the gentle waters 


116 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


shall flow softly through all my common affairs”’? 
Such mechanicalised affection would have no 
vitality, and such pity would be merely 
theatrical—of no more reality or efficacy than 
the acted pity of the stage. Feelings cannot 
rise matured at the mere command of the 
will. 

But, now, while I may not be able to 
produce the sentiment of pity by an act of 
immediate creation, can I rear it by a thoughtful 
and reasonable process? I cannot create an 
apple, but I can plant an apple-tree. I cannot 
create a flower, but I can create the requisite 
conditions. I can sow the seed, I can give the 
water, I can even arrange the light. I can 
devote to the culture thoughtful and ceaseless 
care; and he who sows and plants and waters 
and tends is a fellow-labourer with the Eternal 
in the creation of floral beauty. What we 
cannot create by a fiat we may produce by a 
process. It is even so with the sentiments. 
Feelings cannot be effected at a stroke; they 
emerge from prepared conditions. Pity is not 
the summary creation of the stage; it is the 
long-sought product of the school. It is not the 
offspring of a spasm; it is the child of discipline. 
Pity is the culmination of a process; it is not 
stamped as with a die, it is grown as a fruit. 
The obligation therefore centres round about 


CHAPTER III. 8 117 


the process; the issues belong to my Lord. 
Mine is the planting, mine the watering, mine 
the tending; God giveth the increase. When, 
therefore, I hear the apostolic imperative, “ Be 
pitiful!” Ido not think of a stage, I think of 
a garden; I do not think of a manufactory, I 
think of a school. 

Let us now consider the process. “ Be 
pitiful!” That is the expression of a fine 
feeling; and if life is to be touched to such 
exquisite issues, life itself must be of fine 
material. Fine characteristics imply fine 
character. You will not get fine porcelain 
out of pudding-stone. The exquisiteness of 
the result must be hidden in the original 
substance. If you want rare issues, you must 
have fine organic quality. Some things are 
naturally coarser than others, and there are 
varying scales of refinement in their products. 
The timber that would make a good railway 
sleeper would not be of the requisite texture 
for the making of violins. I saw, only a little 
while ago, the exposed hearts of many varieties 
of Canadian timber. In some the grain was 
coarse and rough; in others the grain was 
indescribably close and compact, presenting a 
surface almost as fine as the rarest marble. 
Their organic qualities were manifold, and 
their destinations were as manifold as their 


118 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


grain. Some passed to'rough-and-tumble usage ; 
others passed to the ministry and expression 
of the finest art. These organic distinctions 
are equally pronounced when we ascend to 
the plane of animal life. The differing 
grains of timber find their analogy in the 
differing constitutions of an ordinary dray-horse 
and an Arab steed. You cannot harness 
the two beasts to the same burden and work. 
The sensitive responsiveness of the one, its 
quivering, trembling alertness, makes it fitted 
for ministries in which the other would find 
no place. It is again the repetition of the 
chaste porcelain and the common mug. It 
is not otherwise when we reach the plane of 
man. There is the same difference in grain. 
Our organic qualities are manifold. Look 
at the difference in our bodies. Some have 
bodies that are coarse and rough, dull and 
heavy, with little or no fine apprehension of 
the beauty and perfume and essences of the 
material world. Others have bodies of the 
finest qualities, alert and sensitive, responding 
readily to the coming and going of the 
exquisite visitors who move in sky or earth, 
on land and sea. In our bodies we appear 
to differ as widely as Caliban and Ariel—the 
thing of the ditch, and the light and buoyant 
creature of the air. Now, dare we push our 


CHAPTER III. 8 119 


investigation further? Do these organic 
differences appertain to the realm of the soul? 
Are there not souls which seem to be rough- 
grained, organically and spiritually coarse? 
The very substance of their being, the basis 
of motive and thought and feeling and 
ambition, is inherently vulgar, and they seem 
incapable of these finer issues of tender pity 
and chaste affection. Now, where character is 
rough-grained fine sentiments are impossible. 
You can no more elicit pity from vulgarity 
than you can elicit Beethoven’s Sonatas from 
undressed cat-gut. If we would have fine 
issues, we must have rare character. If we 
would have rare pity, we must become 
refined men. 

What, then, can be done ? Can we do anything 
in the way of culture? Can the organic quality 
be changed? Can we make coarseness retire 
before the genius of refinement? It is surprising 
how much we can do in the kingdom of nature. 
By assiduous care we can transform the harsh 
and rasping crab-apple into the mild and genial 
fruit of the table; and we can, by persistent 
englect, drive it back again into the coarseness 
of the wilderness. It is amazing how you can 
bring a grass-plot under discipline, until even 
the rank grass seems to seek conformity with 
the gentler turf; and it is equally amazing how 


120 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


by neglect and indifference you can degrade 
a lawn into a common field. In the realm 
of garden and field organic qualities can be 
changed. Does the possible transformation 
cease when we reach the kingdom of man? 
Can dull and heavy bodies be refined? Is it 
possible to alter the organic quality of a man’s 
flesh? It is much more possible than the 
majority of people assume. By thoughtful 
exercise, by reasonable diet, by firm restraint, 
by “plain living and high thinking,” it is 
possible to drive the heaviness out of our 
bodies, and to endow them with that organic 
refinement which will be the revealing minister 
of a new world. Can the transformation proceed 
further? Let me propound the question which 
is perhaps one of the greatest questions that 
can come from human lips: Is it possible to go 
into the roots and springs of character, into the 
primary spiritual substance which lies behind 
thought and feeling, and change the organic 
quality of the soul? If this can be done, the 
creation of pity is assured! If the coarse fibres 
of the soul can be transformed into delicate 
harp-strings, we shall soon have the sweet and 
responsive music of sympathy and affection! 
Can it be done? Why, this transformation 
is the very glory of the Christian evangel! 
What do we want accomplishing? We 


CHAPTER III. 8 121 


want the secret substance of the life chastened 
and refined, that it may become vibratory to 
the lives of our fellows. What think you 
then of this evangel? ‘He sits as a refiner.” 
And what is the purpose of the Refiner? Let 
the Apostle Paul supply the answer, ‘‘ We are 
renewed by His Spirit in the inner man.” 
The Refiner renews our basal spiritual sub- 
stance, takes away our drossy coarseness, and 
makes our spirits the ministers of refinement. 
And what are the conditions of obtaining 
refinement? The conditions are found in com- 
munion: “His Spirit in the inner man”: it 
is fellowship between man and his Maker; it 
is the companionship of the soul and God. All 
lofty communion is refining! All elevated 
companionships tend to make me chaste! What, 
then, must be the transforming influence of the 
companionship of the Highest? We can see its 
ministry in the lives of the saints. Lay your 
hand upon any one, man or woman, who walks 
in closest fellowship with the risen Lord, and 
you will find that the texture of their life is 
as the choicest porcelain, compared with which 
all irreligious lives are as coarse and common 
clay. By communion with the Divine we 
become ‘“partakers of the Divine nature.” 
In fellowship we find the secret of spiritual 
refinement, and in spiritual refinement are 


122 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


found the springs of sympathy. To be pitiful 
we must become good. Our pity is born of 
our piety. 

But there is a second step in the process to 
which I must briefly direct your thought. It is 
not enough to be organically refined. Refined 
faculties must be exercised. A man may have 
a brain of very rare organic quality, and yet 
the particular function of the brain may be 
allowed to remain inactive and immature. It is 
not enough for me to become spiritually refined ; 
I must exercise my refined spirit in the ministry - 
of a large discernment. Now, for the creation 
of a wise and ready sympathy, there is no power 
which needs more continuous use than the power 
of the Imagination. I sometimes think, look- 
ing over the wide breadths of common life, that 
there is no faculty which is more persistently — 
denied its appropriate work. ‘“ Look not every 
man on his own things, but every man also on 
the things of others.” Such vision calls for the 
exercise of the imagination. ‘Put yourself in 
his place.” Such transposition demands the 
ministry of the imagination. If the imagination 
be not exercised, we offer hospitality to the 
shrieking sisterhood of bigotry and intolerance. 
If a pure and refined imagination had been at 
work, how could an Anglican clergyman have 
declared that the Nonconformists are “in mad 


CHAPTER III. 8 123 


alliance with Anarchists”? And if a refined 
imagination had been in exercise, how could 
a Nonconformist have spoken of the Bishops 
as “ caring little for the cause of Christ so long 
as they could suffocate Dissenters” ? How much 
a refined imagination would have helped in 
the mutually sympathetic understanding of Pro- 
Boers and Anti-Boers? When this faculty is 
sleeping, evil things are very much awake! But 
for my immediate purpose I am asking for the 
exercise of the imagination in respect to things 
which would be otherwise insignificant. Imagi- 
nation is second sight. Imagination is the eye 
which sees the unseen. Imagination does for 
the absent what the eye does for the present. 
Imagination does for the distant what the eye 
does for the near. The eye is concerned with 
surfaces; imagination is busied with depths. 
The dominion of the eye terminates at the 
horizon; at the horizon, imagination begins. 
Imagination is the faculty of realisation; it 
takes a surface and constructs a cube ; it takes 
statistics, and fashions a life. Here is a surface 
fact: “Total of patients treated in the Queen’s 
Hospital during 1901, 31,064.” The eye ob- 
serves the surface fact and passes on, and 
pity is unstirred. The imagination pauses at 
the surface, lingers long, if perchance she 
may comprehend something of its saddening 


124 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


significance. Imagination turns the figures 
over; 31,064! Then these afflicted folk would 
fill twenty buildings, each of them the size 
of the chapel at Carrs Lane. Says Imagina- 
tion, ‘‘I will marshal the pain-ridden, bruised 
crowd in procession, and they shall pass my 
window and door, one a minute, one a minute, 
one a minute! How long will it take the 
procession to pass? Twenty-one days!” But 
what of the units of the dark and tearful proces- 
sion? Imagination gets to work again. Have 
youachild down? They are like him. Have you 
a brother falling, or a sister faint and spent? 
They are like them. Have you known a mother 
torn and agonised with pain, or a father crushed 
and broken in his prime? They are like him. 
Have you gone down the steep way to the 
death-brink, and left a loved one there? Some 
of these, too, have been left at the brink, 
and their near ones are climbing up the steep 
way again alone! This is how refined imagi- 
nation works, and, while she works, her sister, 
Pity, awakes and weeps! But if pity is not 
to be smothered again, the aroused impulse 
must be gratified and fed. I know that pity 
can give “ere charity begins,’ but charity 
confirms pity, and strengthens and enriches it. 
Feelings of pity, which do not receive fulfilment 
in charity or service, may become ministers 


CHAPTER III. 8 125 


of petrifaction. Let our piety be the basis of 
our pity; let our imagination extend our 
vision; and from this area of hallowed out- 
look there will arise rivers of gracious sympathy, 
abundantly succouring the children of pain 
and grief. 


CHRIST SANCTIFIED AS LORD 
1 PETER ili. 8-15 


Finally, be ‘ye all likeminded, compassionate, loving as 
brethren, tenderhearted, humbleminded : not rendering evil 
Jor evil, or reviling for reviling ; but contrariwise blessing ; 
for hereunto were ye called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 
For, He that would love life, and see good days, let him 
refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no 
guile: and let him turn away from evil, and do good ; let 
him seek peace, and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are 
upon the righteous, and his ears unto their supplication : 
but the face of the Lord is upon them that do evil. And 
who is he that will harm you, uf ye be zealous of that which 
is good? But and if ye should suffer for righteousness’ 
sake, blessed are ye: and fear not ther fear, neither be 
troubled ; but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord : being 
ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a 
reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness 
and fear. 


Verse 15 ‘ Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord.” The 
heart is a sanctuary. It is a place of worship. 
Worship is always proceeding. There is a large 
congregation. Who are the worshippers? Let 
me name a few. ‘There are our wishes, our 
ambitions, our motives, our willings. All these 


are worshippers, bowing in the heart before 
126 


CHAPTER III. 8-15 127 


some enthroned and sovereign Lord. Our dis- 
positions are also among the crowd. All the 
forces of thought and feeling are mingled in 
the varied congregation! Go into the sanctuary 
of any heart, and you will find, kneeling side by 
side in homage and obeisance, wishes, motives, 
sentiments, purposes, dispositions, all bowing 
before some central shrine. Who is the Lord 
of the temple? In some temples it is Mammon! 
He is sanctified as Lord, and round him are 
kneeling the congregated thoughts, passions, 
and ambitions, offering him incense, supplication, 
and praise. Who is the Lord? In some temples 
it is the Lord of Misrule. He is sanctified as 
Lord! Chaos reigns, and in riotous disorder the 
mob of tumultuous thoughts and feelings offer 
him noisy acclamation. Who is the Lord of the 
temple? In some temples indifference is en- 
throned. Indifference is sanctified as Lord! 
The atmosphere is opiated; life is a lounge; 
everything comes and goes in carelessness; all 
the worshippers are narcotised in thoughtlessness, 
or sunk in profound and perilous sleep. Who is 
the Lord of the temple? In some temples it is 
the devil. Every worshipper bends in adoration 
of vice, reciting the liturgy of uncleanness, 
and every member of the congregation, every 
thought, every feeling, every ambition, bears 
upon its forehead the mark of the beast. Who 


Verse 15 


128 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


is the Lord of the temple? In some temples it 
is the Christ. All the assembled forces and 
powers of the life willingly prostrate themselves 
in fervent and lowly worship. Every hour of 
the day there is a worshipper in the radiant 
temple! Now it is a wish, now a shaping plan, 
now a completed purpose, now a penitent 
feeling, now a gay delight—these all stoop in 
reverent homage before the exalted Christ, and 
as we always appropriate the worth of the object 
we worship, the bending congregation of thoughts 
and sentiments acquire the beauty of the Lord. 
The worshipping motive is chastened and refined; 
the kneeling wish is etherealised; the stooping 
sorrow is transfigured; all the reverent forces 
of the personality are transformed into children 
of light. Who is the Lord in the temple? 
That is the all-determining question. ‘“ Sanctify 
in your hearts Christ as Lord.” In your temple 
let the Christ be enthroned. Let everything in 
the life be made to kneel in that sanctuary. 
Bring ye everything to the foot of the great 
white throne. Let the Lord be King! “Little 
children, keep yourselves from idols.” 

“Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord.” 
That is the creative centre of the passage. All 
the surrounding context is resultant and con- 
sequent. This is the all-originating fountain! 
Around it are stretches of land, threaded with 


CHAPTER III. 8-15 129 


rivers which are the children of its creative 
springs. Let us pass from the springs to the 
rivers. If Christ be sanctified in the heart as 
Lord, if everything in the deep, secret places of 
the life bow before His throne, if at Matins and 
Evensong, and through all the intervening hours 
of the day, the endless procession of mystic 
forces in the soul reverently bend to His 
dominion, what will be the quality of the issues, 
what will be the striking characteristics of the 
life ? 

Are you surprised that the apostle’s answer 
begins with an enumeration of the softer graces: 
‘compassionate, tenderhearted, humbleminded” ? Verse 8 
Did you anticipate that he would begin with 
attributes more majestic, more manly and com- 
manding? Is it disappointing that the apostle 
should give emphasis to graces which we com- 
monly associate with women rather than with 
men? I have called them the softer graces; 
perhaps I ought to have called them the riper 
fruit. The ultimate expression of the strongest 
tree is its sweetest and ripest fruit. The tender, 
exquisite colour of a ripening acorn is the finest 
expression of the oak. Hearts of oak reach 
their finished achievement in the softest hues 
of their ripest fruit. Manliness is never perfected 
until it issues in tenderest grace. Therefore I 
am not surprised to find the apostle giving 


130 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


prominence to the finished and ripened attain- 
ments in sanctified life. What, again, are their 
names ? 
Verse8 “Compassion.” The range of a man’s life is 
just the range of his compassions, which is only 
another name for the range of his correspond- 
ences. Death is just the destruction of all 
correspondence. The dying lose correspondence 
after correspondence; nerve after nerve and 
sense after sense collapse ; communications are 
slowly broken; and by gradual paralysis and 
benumbment all correspondences end. The 
measure of my life is determined by the quality 
and quantity of my correspondences. This is 
true of the life of the flesh. It is true in the 
realm of the mind. How much am I in touch 
with? What is the range of my interests ? 
What are my correspondences? It is true in 
the domains of the soul. How much do [I live? 
That depends upon my compassion, my re- 
sponsiveness, my ‘ correspondence.” What is 
the extent of my fellow-feeling? What is my 
power of apprehending and realising my brother, 
and by the ministry of an unveiling imagination 
planting myself in the heart of his interests and 
estate? That is one of the rarest attainments 
in the sanctified life. The Lord refines His 
disciples into compassionateness. He indefinitely 
enlarges their correspondences. He endows 


CHAPTER III. 8-15 131 


them with sensitive passion, with profundity of 
feeling. ‘Deep calleth unto deep,” and they 
maintain fruitful fellowship with the joys and 
sorrows of their fellow-men. 

“ Tenderheartedness.” 'That carries one a step Verse 8 
further than compassion. Tenderheartedness 
is more than correspondence; it is gentle 
ministry. It includes the service of the tender 
hand. It not only feels the pains of others; it 
touches the wounds with exquisite delicacy. 
Even the pitiful man can be clumsy. Six men 
may have the sympathy, but only one of the six 
may be able to touch the wound so as to heal 
it. The Lord will add a gentle hand to our 
compassion. He will take away all brusqueness, 
all spiritual clumsiness, so that in the very 
ministry of pity we may not “ break the bruised 
reed, nor quench the smoking flax.” 

“ Humblemindedness.” Surely that adds a verses 
still richer bloom to the heavenly grace! The 
Lord will not only give us a heart of compassion ; 
it shall be compassion rid of all brusqueness ; 
it shall also be purged of all superciliousness 
and pride! It shall be ‘“humbleminded.” 
Even pity may wear some of the garments 
of pride! There is something bitter and 
offensive in all compassion which moves in 
patronage. The Man whose “ compassions 
failed not” was “meek and lowly in heart!” 


132 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


Pity is petrifying when it comes from pride; it 
is soothing and healing when it flows from the 
humble mind, and this is the perfected grace of 
the sanctified life. 

Verse9 ‘Not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for 
reviling ; but contrariwise blessing.” Surely that 
is the perfection of compassion! Compassion 
may go out on chivalrous errands with sensitive 
hands and lowly mind, and may meet with 
ingratitude and angry rebuff from those whom 
she seeks to serve. When the one we have 
been compassionately nursing turns and reviles 
us, and treats our ministry with contempt, how 
easy it is to become sour and hard, to return 
reviling for reviling, and to throw up the 
knightly service with disgust! But the Lord 
will so perfect the compassion that even in the 
midst of reviling it will continue in “blessing,” 
and in atmospheres of ingratitude and contempt 
will toil on in the ministry of “healing them 
that are bruised.” What say you now to these 
softer graces, these riper fruits of the sanctified 
life? Are they not a resplendent issue? He 
who continually, in his heart, sanctifies Christ 
as Lord, becomes possessed by a compassion 
which moves in delicate sensitiveness, and in 
humblemindedness, and which remains sweet 
and persistent in hostile atmospheres of mur- 
muring and contempt. 


CHAPTER III. 8-15 133 


Now let us turn to the sterner products of 
the sanctified life. Let us turn to the hearts- 
of-oak of which the softer graces are the per- 
fected fruit. Let us contemplate the severer 
_ virtues, the more commanding strength. 

“ Zealous of that which is good.” That sounds Verse 13 
suggestive of strength! “Clarify yourconcep- _ 
tion of duty! Get it clearly in youreye! Set 
the good firmly before you! Then be zealous!” 
Such is the strong, definite virtue which is the 
fruit of the sanctified life. ‘ Zealous of the 
good!” You will get the native energy of the 
word “zealous” if you recall its kinsman 
“jealous.” It is significant of consuming eager- 
ness and ceaseless vigilance. It is suggestive 
of burning passion. There towers the “ good!” 
The “ zealous” soul confronts it, not with faint 
and timid aspiration, but possessed by a blazing 
and driving ambition! The strength of his 
passion is the measure of his defence. You may 
play tricks with a candle-flame ; you must give 
margin to a bonfire. You may trifle with the 
lukewarm; who would try it on with the 
zealot ? You may carry an evil suggestion to 
one man, and quite unembarrassed you may lay 
it across the threshold of his mind. You may 
take the suggestion to another man, and before 
you have got out of the preface you are scorched 
and consumed, There are lives so sanctified by 


134 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


the indwelling Christ that they blight all evil 
approaches, and cause them to wither away. 
Their fire is their defence. That is a wonderful 
figure employed by the prophet—“ clad with 
zeal as a cloak.” The man wears a protective 
garment of fire! He is secured in his own 
enthusiasms! He is preserved in the spirit of 
burning. Now, that burning passion for “that 
which is good” is one of the strengths of the 
sanctified life. Why, our very word “ enthusi- 
asm,” which is now suggestive of ardour, passion, 
fire, had no such significance in its earliest day. 
It literally signifies ‘in God,” and it is because 
men have found that souls which are united 
with God are characterised by zeal and fire, that 
the word has lost its causal content, and is now 
limited to the description of the effect. The 
enthusiastic is the fiery, but fiery because in 
fellowship with God. “He shall baptize... 
with fire.” One of the resultant virtues of 
sanctification is spiritual enthusiasm, a zeal for 
“that which is good.” 

Verse 14 ‘Suffering for righteousness’ sake.” That 
sounds like a masculine virtue! It is a phrase 
which unveils a little more of the firm strength 
of this spiritual ambition! The zealot goes 
right on, with ‘“‘the good” as his goal, suffer- 
ing loss, if need be, of ease and comfort and 
wealth and fame, and counting the loss as 


CHAPTER III. 8-15 135 


“blessed” if only it help him in the way of 
spiritual attainment. This is the character of 
spiritual enthusiasts! We may reserve for 
such character whatever criticism we please, 
we cannot deny it the eulogium of “strength.” 
At any rate it is not weak and effeminate. 
There is something about it granitic and 
majestic! Christ Jesus makes men and women 
who despise ease, who are “ ready to be offered,” 
who will plod through toils and pains and 
martyrdom if these lie in the way of duty 
and truth. Only a few months ago our 
little chapels outside Pekin were destroyed by 
the Boxers, and the majority of the native 
Christians foully murdered. The chapels are 
being erected again. I have read the account 
of the opening of one of these restored 
sanctuaries. And who took part in the re- 
opening ? The remnant of the decimated 
church! Men stood there whose wives and 
children had been butchered in the awful 
carnival; there they stood, their love undimmed, 
their faith unshaken, themselves “ready to be 
offered” in their devotion to the Lord! I say, 
give to it any criticism you please, you cannot 
deprive it of the glory of superlative strength! 
“They rejoiced that they were counted worthy 
to suffer shame for His name.” That is the 
product of the sanctified life. The Lord lifts us 


136 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


above the common fear. See how the passage 

Verse 14 proceeds: “And fear not their fear, neither be 
troubled.” That is the characteristic which is 
even now shining resplendently in the lives of 
the native Christiansin China. They have been 
gloriously delivered from common fear and 
distraction. They are fearless and collected, 
quietly prepared to ‘suffer for righteousness’ 
sale,” and strongly holding on the way of life, 
“zealous of that which is good.” “Unto them 
it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only 
to believe in His name, but also to suffer for 
His sake.” 

Now, let me sum up my exposition. The 
fruits of the sanctified life are to be found in 
the tender graces and in commanding virtues, in 
compassion, sensitive and humbleminded, and 
in moral and spiritual enthusiasm which is 
perfectly devoid of fear. Now, do you not 
think that where these soft compassions flow 
and these sterner virtues dwell—river and rock 

Verse 15 —@ man will be able to “ give answer to every 
man that asketh a reason concerning the hope that 
as in him”? The finest reason a man can 
give for a spiritual hope is a spiritual experience. 
What have I seen, and heard, and felt, and 
known? In these experiences I shall find 
invincible reasons in days of inquiry and con- 
troversy. Ifaman has sanctified in his heart 


CHAPTER III. 8-15 137 


Christ as Lord, and discovers that his hardness 
has been softened into gracious sympathies, that 
his coldness towards the right has been changed 
into passionate enthusiasm, and that his 
trembling timidities have given place to firm 
and fruitful fearlessness, has he not a splendid 
answer to give to every man who asketh him a 
reason concerning the hope that is in him? 
The answer does not peep out in an apologetic 
“perhaps” or a trembling “if”; it is a mas- 
culine “verily,” a confident “I know.” As to 
the issues of such an answer the apostle is clear. 
A vital testimony is invincible. Fine living is 
not only a fine argument, it is the only effective 
silencer of bad men. “They will be put to 
shame who revile your good manner of life in 
“Christ.” Men may more than match you in ~ 
subtlety of argument. In intellectual con- 
troversy you may suffer an easy defeat. But 
the argument of a redeemed life is unassailable. 
“Seeing the man that was healed standing 
with them, they could say nothing against it.” 


BRINGING US TO GOD 


1 PETER iii. 18-22 


Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the 
unrighteous, that He might bring us to God-; being put to 
death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit; in which 
also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which 
aforetume were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God 
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a pre- 
paring, wherein few, that rs, eight souls, were saved through 
water: which also after a true likeness doth now save you, 
even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, 
but the wnierrogation of a good conscience toward God, 
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ ; who is on the 
right hand of God, having gone into heaven ; angels and 
authorities and powers being made subject unto Him. 


Tue concluding passage of this great chapter 
is like a landscape in the uncertain light of the 
early morning. Here and there the black 
shadows still linger and prolong the night. The 
hollows are filled with mist. A prevailing 
dimness possesses the scene. From only a few 
things has the veil dropped, and their lineaments 
are seen in suggestive outline. On the whole, 
we are dealing with obscure hints, with partial 
unveilings, which awaken wonder, rather than 


convey enlightenment. Perhaps, in the present 
138 


CHAPTER III. 18-22 139 


stage of our pilgrimage, an open-eyed wonder is 

more fruitful than an assurance begotten of 
broader light. Assurance may nourish sluggish- 

ness ; an expectant wonder disciplines the powers 

to a rare perceptiveness. But amid all the 
indefiniteness of the revelation, there are two 

or three visions which are sufficiently clear to 
enrich our thought and life. We have glimpses 

of the Lord in a threefold activity. We see 

Him engaged in His redemptive work among 

men upon earth: “ Christ also suffered for sins Verse 18 
once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He 
might bring us to God.” We behold Him 
ministering to spirits who have left the sphere 

of earth, but who are not yet in reconciled 
fellowship with their God. “He went and Verse 19 
preached unto the spirits in prison.” And we see 

Him again on the throne of His glory receiving 

the willing and jubilant homage of the mystic 
powers who surround the sovereignty of God. 

“ He is on the right hand of God... angels and Verse 22 
authorities and powers being made subject unto 
Him.” Let us contemplate these three rela- 
tionships. 

“Christ also suffered for sins oncz.” There Verse 18 
is a reference to some distinct and definite 
historical event. To the apostle there was a 
certain nameable season when our redemption 
was achieved. The sufferings of the Master 


140 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


were infinitely more than momentary incidents, 
reflecting the permanent mood of God. Christ’s 
sufferings were altogether unique. They were 
paralleled by no previous happenings, and they 
would never be repeated. ‘Christ suffered for 
sins once”; something was done, done “once,” 
and done forever. Therefore, Gethsemane and 
Calvary are gravely and uniquely significant. 
They are more than the tempestuous ending 
of a noble and laborious life. Behind their 
appalling externalities there are more appalling 
conditions. Behind the loneliness of the garden 
there is the more awful loneliness of the soul. 
Behind the blackness of Calvary there is the 
deeper darkness of the spirit. The real move- 
ments of redemptive ministry are not to be 
witnessed in the material setting of the Cruci- 
fixion. The human and material environment of 
the Master’s death has dominated our thought too 
much. Ido not think that the material incidents 
of Gethsemane and Calvary were essential to 
our redemption. I believe that if Christ had 
never been betrayed by one of the twelve, He 
would still have died for our sins. I believe 
that if He had never suffered the brutal ac- 
companiments of mockery and blasphemy, and 
the loathsome coarseness of contemptible men, 
He would still have died for our sins. I believe 
that if He had never been crucified, He would 


CHAPTER III. 18-22 141 


still have died for our sins. I believe that if 
He had finished His ministry in public acclama- 
tion, instead of public contempt, He would still 
have passed into outer darkness, into an un- 
thinkable loneliness, into a terrible midnight of 
spiritual forsakenness and abandonment. He 
came to die, came to pass into the night which 
is “the wages of sin,” and what we men did 
was to add to His death the pangs of contempt 
and crucifixion. 

“‘Christ suffered for sins once.” But could not 
sin have been forgiven without the sufferings ? 
Could not sin have been forgiven without 
abandonment? Might we not have had our 
forgiveness without that cry of “forsaken”? 
I ask these questions not because I can answer 
them, but in order to awake a reverent wonder 
and a fruitful awe. This I know, that cheap 
forgiveness always lightens sin. Flppant for- 
giveness gilds the sin it forgives, and the sorest 
injury we can do to any man is to lighten his 
conception of the enormity of sin. The only 
really healthy forgiveness is the forgiveness 
which pardons sin while at the same time it 
reveals it. This, at any rate, is one of the 
commanding glories of evangelical religion—it 
never makes light of sim. Nowhere does for- 
giveness shine more resplendently, and nowhere 
does sin gloom more repulsively, than in the 


142 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


redemptive love of Christ. In that love we 
behold both the horrors of the midnight and 
the quiet, sunny glories of the noontide. ‘ Christ 
suffered for sins once,” in order that sin might 
never be glozed and veneered. In obtaining our 
forgiveness by His death, the Lord Christ re- 
vealed His love and unveiled our sin. 

Verse18 ‘Christ suffered for sins. . . that He might — 
bring us to God.” By the power of His re- 
demption we can make our way home. He 
is “the way”; the road has been opened for 
us by the ministry of His grace. He is the 
“truth”; in His redemption truth was not 
dimmed but glorified. He is “the life”; in His 
grace are to be found all the resources for 
raising the dead into the renewed and glorified 
estate of children of God. He suffered, “that 
He might bring us to God.” All that need be 
said about that gracious “ bringing ” is just this, 
that in Jesus, answering the call of His redeem- 
ing grace, men and women in countless numbers 
have turned their faces home, and are making 
their way out of the deadening bondage of sin 
into the “glorious liberty of the children of 
God.” 


Far, far away, like bells at evening pealing, 
The voice of Jesus sounds o’er land and sea; 
And laden souls, by thousands meekly stealing, 
Kind Shepherd, turn their weary steps to Thee. 


CHAPTER III. 18-22 143 


And now the sphere of our vision is 
changed. Our minds are turned to another 
aspect of the saving ministry of Christ. The 
Saviour has died. “The great transaction’s 
done.” He has suffered for sins “once.” For- 
giveness is offered to all. What of those 
who have departed this life, and have never 
heard the news of the great redemption? Men 
have sinned against their light, they have 
revolted against the Master. But they have 
lacked the unspeakable advantage of hearing 
the story of redemptive love. Are they to have 
no chance? The souls ‘which aforetime were Verse 2C 
disobedient . . . im the days of Noah,” are they 
to suffer for their disobedience, deprived al- 
together of the ministry of Christ’s redemption ? 
Let the question be stated with perfect frank- 
ness—are the sinful, who have never heard 
of Jesus, to pass into the darkness of a 
final destiny, a darkness which will never be 
illumined by the gospel and ministry of re- 
demption? Here is the scriptural answer to 
that painful quest: ‘‘ He went and preached unto Verse 15 
the spirits in prison.” I know we are dealing 
with dim hints, and not with bright revelations, 
but from those words one thing is clear to me, 
that final judgment is not to be pronounced on 
any until they have heard of the redemptive love 
of Jesus, and have had the offer and opportunity 


144 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


of accepting it. No man’s destiny is to be fixed 
until he has heard of Christ. The “spirits in 
prison,” who have not heard the gospel of 
redemption, are to hear it in their prison-house 
and are to have the gracious offer which is 
made to you and me to-day. I know the objec- 
tion which is taken to this interpretation. It 
is said to weaken the urgency of foreign 
missions, to make men sluggish in the labour of 
taking the gospel of light to unillumined tribes 
and peoples. If the offer of salvation is to be 
made to the ignorant on the other side of death, 
what special urgency is there for strenuous 
labour in the present? That is how many men 
have reasoned, and how many reason to-day. If 
the unenlightened heathen are not swept into 
hell, the burden of the situation is lightened, 
and the strain is relaxed. It is a terrific motive 
to conceive that the unillumined multitudes are 
dropping over the precipice of death into ever- 
lasting torment. And that has been the con- 
ception of many devoted followers of Christ. 
I was reading a book the other day in which 
the writer made the terrible declaration that 
three millions of the heathen and Mohammedans 
are dying every month, dropping over the 
precipice into the awful night, swept into 
eternity! Swept into what? If they go out 
with unlit minds and hearts, are they never 


CHAPTER III. 18-22 145 


-to see the gracious countenance of the Light of 

Life? “ He went and preached unto the spirits 
in prison.” Again I ask, does this destroy the 
urgency of foreign missions, and will it lull the 
heart of the Church to sleep? Where are 
we if the motive of our missions and ministry 
is to save people from the fires of hell ? 
Apart altogether from salvation from torment, 
is the Master Himself worth knowing? Sup- 
posing we could now be assured that every 
soul in the heathen world would be here- 
after rescued from the torments of hell, is there 
nothing in our Gospel which shapes itself into 
an urgent and all-constraining evangel? Seek 
out some ripe old saint, who has deep and in- 
timate intercourse with the Lord; let her open 
her heart to you about the glories of her faith; 
and you will discover that the word “hell” has 
dropped out of her vocabulary. She is so ab- 
sorbed in the glories of her Lord, so possessed 
by the delights of daily companionship, so en- 
gaged in carrying her own God-given comfort 
to the sorrows of others, that the house of 
torments has no place in her heart. If you ask 
her the nature of the evangel she carries about 
with her, this will be her reply: 


God only knows the love of God, 
Oh that it now were shed abroad 
In every human heart! 


146 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


The real missionary motive is not to save 
from hell, but to reveal the Christ; not to 
save from a peril, but to proclaim and create 
a glorious companionship. Here is the marrow 
of the controversy, concentrated into one 
pressing question: Is a of infinite moment to 
know Christ now? Assume that there are 
now men and women in the heathen world 
who are to remain upon the earth for the next 
twenty years, and it is in our power to make 
those twenty years a season of hallowed fellow- 
ship with the Lord, is it worth the doing? 
Even further assuming that if they pass 
through death unenlightened, they will hear 
the message of reconciliation in the beyond, 
is it worth our while to light up those 
twenty years with the gracious light of re- 
demptive grace? What is the money-value 
of an hour with the Lord? I do not address 
my question to the unredeemed, for the unre- 
deemed have no answer, and in them the 
missionary-motive has no place. I speak to 
those who have accepted the offer of reconciling 
love, and who know the power of the Lord’s 
salvation, and of them I ask—What is the 
money-value of an hour with the Lord? 
“Beyond all knowledge and all thought.” 
Carry your values across to the regions of 
ignorance and night. To be able to give one 


CHAPTER III. 18-22 147 


“day of the Son of Man” to some poor old soul 
in heathendom; to lighten one day’s load; to 
transfigure one day’s sorrow; to lift the burden 
of his passion; to create a river of kindliness; 
to light his lamp in the evening-time, and to 
send him through the shadows in the assurance 
of immortal hope,—is it worth the domg? “A 
day in Thy courts is better than a thousand.” 
Such is the value of a day with the Lord. We 
are stewards of the mysteries of grace. Because 
we have them we owe them. Woe be to us if 
through our thoughtlessness we leave our fellow- 
men in days of burdensome terror and night, 
when by our ministry we might have led them 
into the peace and liberty of the children 
of light. 

And now the sphere of the Lord’s activity 
is again changed. The apostle next turns our 
minds to the Lord’s enthronement and dominion. 
He “is on the right hand of God, having gone Verse 22 
into heaven; angels and authorities and powers 
being made subject unto Him.” I need that 
conception of the Christ! I know Him as a 
Sufferer, despised and lonely, sharimg our 
frailties, and hastening on to death. I know 
Him as “a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with 
grief.” I need to know Him as the risen and 
glorified King, moving in supreme exaltations, 
receiving the glad and reverent homage of 


148 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


“ the spirits that surround the throne.” I have 
seen Him weep; I have seen Him wearied at 
the well; I have heard Him cry “I thirst”; 
I have heard the still more awful ery “ For- 
saken!” Now I would see Him, “with a name 
above every name,” highly exalted,”. “ angels and 
authorities and powers being made subject unto 
Him.” We are timid, and nerveless, and hope- 
less, lacking in spiritual energy and persist- 
ence, crawling in reluctance when we ought 
to speed like conquerors, and all because we 
do not realise the majestic lordship of our King. 
“ All power is given unto Me in heaven and on 
earth.” What kind of followers ought that to 
create? Surely it ought to be creative of 
disciples who can “strongly live and nobly 
strive.” Soldiers will dare anything when they 
have confidence in the strength and wisdom of 
their general. His commands are their possi- 
bilities, and they are eager to turn them into 
sure achievements. We have a brave Captain, 
seated upon the throne, and exercising universal 
sovereignty. Surely we ought to march in the 
spirit of assured conquest. We ought to attack 
every stronghold of sin with confidence, as 
though the dark citadel were already falling 
into ruin. The Lord wishes His disciples to 
begin all enterprises in the knowledge that 
victory is secured. “Believe that ye receive 


CHAPTER III. 18-22 149 


them and ye shall have them.” That is the 
spirit of victory. 

All this redemptive power may become ours 
by baptism, but not the baptism that consists 
in any outward sprinkling of external cleansing. 
“Not by the putting away of the filth of the 
flesh.” We need to be lifted above the filth 
of the spirit, and so the baptism must be an 
inspiration. There must be poured into our 
life rivers of energy from the risen Lord. 

That cleansing flood will create within us 
moral soundness. We shall attain unto “a good 
conscience.” Our lives will be set in “ interroga- 
tion toward God.” Our souls will be possessed 
by a reverent inquisitiveness, and they will be 
ever searching among the deep things of God. 


Verse 1 


THE SUFFERING WHICH MEANS 
TRIUMPH 


1 PETER iv. 1-6 

Forasmuch then as Christ suffered im the flesh, arm 
ye yourselves also with the same mind ; for he that hath 
suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that ye no 
longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh to the 
lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past may 
suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles, and to 
have walked in lasciviousness, lusts, winebibbings, revellings, 
carousings, and abominable rdolatries: wherein they think 
at strange that ye run not with them into the same excess of riot, 
speaking evil of you: who shall give account to Him that is 
ready to judge the quick and the dead. For unto this end 
was the gospel preached even to the dead, that they 
might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live 
according to God in the spirit. 


“ Forasmuch then as Christ suffered im the flesh.” 
Do not let us so think of the sufferings of 
Christ as to relegate them to the last few 
days of His earthly ministry. It is well to 
confine the great term, ‘the passion,” to the 
awful events of Gethsemane and Calvary. In 
the midnight of the latter days the happenings 
are unspeakable. On Calvary the sufferings 


not only culminate; they become unique. 
150 


CHAPTER IV. 1-6 151 


They detach themselves from the common lot, 
and pass into the pangs of a lonely and terrible 
isolation whose supreme bitterness cannot be 
shared. 
We may not know, we cannot tell 
What pains He had to bear. 

It is well to mark these appalling hours by the 
distinctive term, “the passion.” But we must not 
allow “the passion” to eclipse the sufferings of the 
earlier days. Christ always “suffered in the 
flesh.” The streak of blood lay like a red track 
across the years. The marks of sacrifice were 
everywhere pronounced. What occasioned the 
common sufferings? Here is the explanation. 
His life was dominated by a supreme thought; 
it was controlled by an all-commanding pur- 
pose. What was the purpose? What was the 
prevailing characteristic of His mind? “I do 
always those things that please Him.” He has 
translated that purpose of obedience into 
counsel for His disciples: “Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and His righteousness.” That 
was the mind of the Master. He made his 
abode in the unseen. He sought His gratifica- 
tions in the eternal. He rejected the sove- 
reignty of the flesh. He subordinated the 
temporal. He uncrowned the body, making it 
a common subject, and compelling it into 
obeisance to high commands. Im all the 


152 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


competing alternatives that presented them- 
selves, priority was given to the spiritual. The 
allurements of ease, the piquant flavours of 
pleasurable sensations, the feverish delights of 
passion, the delicious thrill of popular acclama- 
tion, the sweetness of immediate triumph: all 
these many and varied offspring of the temporal 
were not permitted to be regnant; they were 
not allowed to usurp the place of executive 
and determining forces; they were muzzled 
and restrained, and kept to the rear of the life. 
Christ looked “not at the things which are 
seen, but at the things which are not seen.” 
Such was the mind of the Master. 

Now, emphasis of this kind inevitably neces- 
sitates suffering. No man can give pre-emi- 
nence to the unseen without the shedding of 
blood. When the immediate contends with the 
apparently remote, the immediate is so urgently 
obtrusive that to hold it down entails a cruci- 
fixion. When carnality contends with con- 
science, the healthy settling of the contention 
necessitates suffering. When ease opposes 
duty, the putting down of the fascinating 
enemy necessitates suffering. When mere 
sharpness comes into conflict with truth, when 
money seeks to usurp the throne of righteous- 
ness, when the glitter of immediate success 
ranges itself against the fixed and glorious 


CHAPTER IV. 1-6 153 


constellation of holiness, the controversies will 
not be settled in bloodless reveries and in 
unexhausting dreams. To put down the imme- 
diate and to prefer the remote, to subject the 
temporal and to choose the eternal, demands 
a continual crucifixion. ‘Christ also suffered, 
being tempted.” Alternatives were presented 
to Him, and the preference occasioned the 
shedding of blood. Christ suffered, being 
tempted! The temptations were not bloodless 
probings of the invulnerable air. They were 
searching appeals to vital susceptibilities, and 
resistance was pain. “Christ also suffered in 
the flesh.” All through the years He had been 
exercising the higher choice. Before He 
emerged into the public gaze, in the obscure 
years at Nazareth, in His early youth in the 
village, in the social life of the community, in 
the little affairs of the carpenter’s shop, He 
_ had been denying Himself and taking up His 
cross. He had preferred the eternal to the 
temporal, and His clear, commanding con- 
science had dominated the clamours of the flesh. 
This was the emphasis of the Master’s life; 
He “suffered in the flesh.” Now such emphasis 
spells sinlessness. When the eternal rules the 
temporal, when the remotely glorious is pre- 
ferred before the immediately bewitching, when 
suffering is chosen before the violation of the 


154 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


moral and spiritual ideal, the soul is already 
wearing the crown of the sinless life. 

Verse1 “He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased 
from sin.” And now the apostle takes up the 
example of the Master and makes it a motive in 
the life of the disciple. ‘ Forasmuch then as 
Christ suffered in the flesh, arm ye yourselves 
also with the same mind.” What was His mind ? 
The preference and the predominance of the 
eternal. “Arm yourselves with the same 
mind.” Let the same governing purpose deter- 
mine the choices in your life. In every moment 
of the little day let the eternal rule. “Wo 

Verse 2 longer live the rest of your time in the flesh.” 
Don’t let the flesh constitute the entire circle 
of your movement! Don’t let the temporal 
define the boundaries of your journeyings! 
Launch out upon larger waters! Live no 
longer “to the lusts of men.” Don’t follow the 
feverish will-o’-the-wisps that flit about the 
swamps! But live ‘to the will of God.” 
Follow the eternal star! Let the spiritual 
control all the events in your life, both great 
and small, just as the force of gravitation 
dominates alike the swinging planet and the 
mote that sports in the sunbeam. Such a 
sovereign purpose will necessitate suffering, 
but the purpose will of itself provide the 

Verse 1 necessary defence. “Arm ye yourselves also 


CHAPTER IY. 1-6 155 


with the same mind.” The exalted purpose will 
be our armour, our assurance against destruc- 
tion. If we are wounded, in the wounds there 
shall be no poison. If we suffer, in the suffer- 
ings there shall be no disease. In the combat 
there shall be no fatality. We are “armed” 
against destructive hurt. “What shall harm 
us if we be followers of that which is good?” 
“As dying, yet shall we live.” “ Our light 
affliction . . . worketh for us a weight of 
glory.” ‘“Forasmuch then as Christ suffered 
in the flesh, arm ye yourselves also with the 
same mind.” 

From the contemplation of the Master's 
“sufferings in the flesh” the apostle now turns 
the minds of his readers to the contemplation 
of their own yesterdays, if perchance they may 
find in the retrospect an added force to con- 
strain them to a life of triumphant suffering. 
He has sought to allure them to exalted, spiritual 
living by the example of the Lord; now he 
will seek to drive them into the same lofty 
tendency by causing them to dwell upon their 
own loathsome and appalling past. The re- 
pulsion obtained from our yesterdays will 
give impetus to the inclination to live “to 
the will of God” to-day. “ For the tume past Verse 3 
may suffice to have wrought the desire of the 
Gentiles, and to have walked in lasciviousness, 


156 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


lusts, winebibbings, revellings, carousings, and 
abominable idolatries.” What an appalling list! 
And how plainly worded! Surely a list like 
that will add the force of recoil to the newly- 
born inclination towards God! It is a fruitful 
exercise to go into our yesterdays, and quietly 
meditate upon “our times past.” It is a 
humbling and painful ministry to trace the face 
of the past, bit by bit, feature by feature, giving 
to each characteristic its dwn plain and legiti- 
mate name. The Apostle Paul frequently em- 
ployed this ministry when writing to his 
converts. He would never allow them to forget 
their yesterdays, lest they should lose the. 
impetus that comes from the retrospect. ‘‘ And 
such were some of you.” There you have a 
retrospective glance. What had they been? 
“Fornicators, adulterers, effeminate, thieves, 
covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners.” 
How black the catalogue! ‘And such were 
some of you.” I think the reminder would send 
the converts to their knees in intenser supplica- 
tion. Hear the apostle again in his letter to 
the Ephesians: “In time past ye walked ac- 
cording to the course of this world, according 
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit 
that now worketh in the children of dis- 
obedience.” I say he will not suffer the past 
to be eclipsed and forgotten. He lifts the veil, 


CHAPTER IV. 1-6 157 


and pointedly describes the terrible scene. 
And here is the Apostle Peter seeking to con- 
firm his readers’ devotion by the power of a 
repulsion, and he turns their minds to “the 
times past.” It is a rare ministry for the 
creation of sincere and agonising prayer! A 
man may pray, “Lead, kindly Light,’ and in 
in the utterance there may be “no agony and 
bloody sweat.” If he turn his face to the 
past, the burden of his yesterdays may crush 
out of his heart a prayer which is more a 
moaning cry than an articulate speech. 


I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou 
Shouldst lead me on. 

I loved to choose and see my path, but now 
Lead Thou me on! 

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears 

Pride ruled my will: remember not past years. 


That last prayer is just the cry of an aching 
and broken heart! The retrospect made him 
a humble and wrestling suppliant. That is the 
motive of the apostle in reminding his readers 
of “the times past” in their lives. He longed 
to corroborate their new-born spirituality by 
the rebound acquired from the contemplation of 
their own past. “I thought over my ways, and 
turned my feet unto Thy testimonies.” 

Now, let us assume that a man has become 
“armed with the mind” of Christ, that his 


158 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


own wasted past gives impetus to his renewed 
present, that he will pay homage to the eternal 
even at the cost of immediate suffering; 
what will be the influence of such a life upon 
the world? Assume that the “unseen and 
eternal” receives the emphasis, that the tem- 
poral is denied at all costs if it conflict with 
the eternal, how will such a life of mingled 
restraint and loftiness affect the world? Here 
Verse4is the answer. ‘“ They think it strange that ye 
run not with them into the same excess of riot.” 
“They think it strange!” They are arrested 
in wonder! What is the significance of this? 
That we shall startle the world by our 
Puritanism. We “run not with them into the 
same excess of riot.” They are astounded! 
Puritanism is arresting. Do not let us be 
ashamed of the old word. Puritanism is most 
vigorously denounced where it is least under- 
stood. We need to get back the commanding 
characteristics of its life. We need to recover 
its broad principles, but not its particular and 
detailed application. I speak not now of the 
counterfeit Puritanism which expressed itself 
in loud and eccentric externalisms, and in much- 
flaunted and self-advertised piety and self- 
denial. There is the Puritan described by Lord 
Macaulay, who was distinguished from other 
men by “his gait, his garb, his lank hair, the 


CHAPTER IV. 1-6 159 


sour solemnity of his face, the upturned white 
of his eyes, his nasal twang, and his peculiar 
dialect.” That is a Puritanism for which no 
sane and healthy man desires a resurrection. 
But there is the Puritanism which Longfellow 
portrays in Miles Standish; there is the 
Puritanism of John Milton, in whose poetry 
we touch the very heart and spirit of the great 
awakening. What, then, is the characteristic 
ideal of true Puritanism? It is life whose 
secret springs are governed by the eternal. It 
is choice of duty before ease, of ideas before 
sensations, of truth before popularity, of a good 
conscience before a full purse, of the holy God 
before dazzling and bewitching Mammon! 
That is the true Puritanism, and that is the 
life whose glorious passion arrests the un- 
restrained and riotous world in sharp and 
inquisitive wonder. “They think it strange 
that ye run not with them into the same excess 
of riot.” That sense of wonder may ripen into 
reverence and may issue in prayer. The con- 
templation of a fine restraint and an unspotted 
integrity has often created an uneasiness which 
has eventually led its victim into the very rest 
and peace of God. But the world’s wonder 
does not always mature into reverence. Some- 
times it sours into resentment, and results in 
a malignity which demands the Puritan’s 


160 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


crucifixion. I cannot forget that the men of 
old wondered at the Master, and then proceeded 
to His crucifixion. ‘They think it strange 
Verse4. . . speaking evil of you.” They will attribute 
your restraint to evil motives. The hiding 
of your benevolence will be interpreted as 
stinginess; its expression will be regarded as 
self-advertisement. Your self-denial will be 
explained as a cloak that conceals a deeper 
covetousness; your entire walk will be de- 
nounced as inspired by Beelzebub, the prince 
of the devils. In the face of such resentment 
and reviling what shall the Puritan do? What 
says the apostle? Just go on! In the face 
of it ali, just calmly persist. Do not return 
reviling for reviling. Leave them and your- 
selves to the arbitrament of God. He knows 
all! We must all “give account to Him that 
is ready to judge the quick and the dead.” 
Maintain the emphasis! Proclaim and exalt 
the Eternal! Live “not to the lusts of the 
flesh,’ but “to the will of God.” The path 
of suffering is “the way to glory.” And 
“wisdom shall be justified of her children.” 


GETTING READY FOR THE END 


1 PETER iv. 7-11 


The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore of 
sound mind, and be sober unto prayer: above all things 
being fervent in your love among yourselves; for love 
covereth a multitude of sins: using hospitality one to 
another without murmuring: according as each hath re- 
cevved a gift, minstering it among yourselves, as good 
stewards of the manifold grace of God; if any man 
speaketh, speaking as tt were oracles of God ; if any man 
ministereth, ministering as of the strength which God 
supplieth : that in all things God may be glorified throuyh 
Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the dominion for ever 
and ever. Amen. 


THat is a most momentous conviction which 
is expressed in these words: “ The end of all Verse 7 
things is at hand.” What kind of conduct will 
it determine, and to what kind of counsel will 
it lead? Here is an apostle, deeply possessed 
by the solemn conviction that the great Con- 
summation is approaching, that the glorified 
Christ is returning, that the judgment is im- 
pending, and that the “end of all things is at 
hand.” In the looming presence of so urgent 
161 11 


162 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


and so commanding an event, how will the 
apostle shape his message? What kind of 
counsel will he give to his readers? What 
manner of preparation will he constrain them 
to make? It matters little or nothing to 
my purpose that the apostle’s anticipations 
of the second advent were premature, and 
that the stupendous consummation was de- 
layed. For you and for me the instructive and 
all-absorbing conjunction remains the same. 
Here is the Apostle Peter sharing with his 
fellow-Christians the expectation of an im- 
mediate end. The Judge is at the door! What 
will be the manner of their behaviour? If 
we knew that within a year or two the Master 
will reappear as the august and sovereign 
Judge, how ought we to pass the intervening 
days? We know, from the letters of the 
Apostle Paul, how the urgent expectancy in- 
fluenced many of the early Christians. Some 
were thrown into panic. Others were despoiled 
of their spiritual collectedness by the invasion 
of unreasonable excitement. Others abandoned 
their ordinary employment, and lapsed into 
an indolence in which they might find more 
leisure to wait and watch for the King’s ap- 
pearing. And we know with what severity the 
apostle denounced these perilous and irrational 
excesses. “Study to be quiet and to do your 


CHAPTER IV. 7-11 163 


own business.” “Be not shaken in mind.” 
“We command that with quietness ye work 
and eat your own bread.” ‘Let us watch and 
be sober.” All this dangerous sensationalism 
was combatted and subdued by the cool self- 
possession of this man’s healthy and imperial 
mind. 

And now here is the Apostle Peter confronted 
by the same prevailing and insidious inclina- 
tions. What will be the character of his 
message? Let us make the matter directly 
pertinent to our own condition that we may 
appreciate the strong, cooling, controlling in- 
fluence of the apostle’s counsel. For us, 
too, “the end” may be at hand. Death 
looms on the not-distant horizon. The King 
is at the gate! What shall be the nature of 
our preparations, and the character of our 
behaviour? “The end of all things is at hand: 
be ye therefore of sound mind.” Sound mind! 
Life is to be characterised by reasonableness 
and sanity. There isto be nothing morbid 
about our mental state, nothing melancholy 
or diseased. We are to be mentally “sound,” 
emancipated from distraction and panic. We 
may enter into the content of the descriptive 
word by watching its usage in our common 
speech. We are familiar with the phrase “as 
sound as a bell,” and the usage will act as 


Verse 7 


Verse 7 


164 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


part-interpreter of the apostle’s thought. “ Souné 
as a bell!” There is no break in the metal, 
no severance in the elements; it holds together 
in compact and undivided unity. “Sound 
mind”; as sound as a bell; no break in the 
mind, no division, no distraction, but a wonder- 
ful collectedness, issuing in the definite tone 
of clear and decisive purpose. We are also 
familiar with another application of the word, 
as in the usage, “sound” and “unsound” meat, 
where the significance is indicative of health 
and disease. And this, too, may guide us into 
the content of the apostle’s thought, for when 
he counsels “ sound-mindedness ” he unquestion- 
ably refers to a mental condition which is freed 
from all morbidity, defilement, taint, and 
disease. “The end of all things is at hand: 
be ye therefore of sound mind,” delivered on 
the one hand from the mental distraction that 
destroys life’s music, and on the other hand 
from the morbid depression which so frequently 
opens the gate for the invasion of death. 
“ And be sober.” That is the second note of 
the apostle’s counsel. ‘And be sober.” It is 
@ warning against all kinds of intoxication, 
but especially against the intoxication of ex- 
cited and tumultuous emotion. There are stimu- 
lants other than those of intoxicating drinks; 
and there is a sensationalism to be found else- 


CHAPTER IV. 7-11 165 


where than in carnal gratification. Excessive 
stimulants may be found in the revival meeting, 
and men may revel in intoxicated emotionalism 
even in the sanctuary. Men may “lose their 
heads ” in many more ways than by the excessive 
imbibing of strong drink. “Be sober.” Don’t 
give way to any excitement which will make life 
grotesque and foolish! Beware of the sensa- 
tionalism which is often the minister of sin. 
“Be sober.” It is an appeal for the culture and 
discipline of emotion. ‘‘ Be sober unto prayer” ; Verse 7 
preserve that calmness of life which is consistent 
with steady aspiration and fruitful supplication ; 
maintain a quiet “watching unto prayer.” 
Here, then, are two of the features which 
characterised a life possessed by a healthy 
expectancy of the Lord’s appearing: sound- 
mindedness and sobriety. We are to wait the 
coming of the King with mind and heart 
delivered from the distractions of panic, from 
the taint of corruption, and from a feverish 
sensationalism which is destructive of the higher 
ministries of fellowship and prayer. 


And now the apostle proceeds to add a third 
element to those already mentioned. ‘“ Above all Verse 8 
things being fervent im your love among your- 
selves.” To “ sound-mindedness” and ‘sobriety ” 
he adds the ministry of “love.” Now the 


166 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


apostle is at some pains to make it clear to us 
what is the quality of this love which should 
characterise the life which expects the King’s 
appearing. In the first place, it is to be 
“fervent.” Now the significance of our English 
word “fervour” scarcely unyeils to us the 
contents of the apostle’s mind. He did not so 
much suggest a love that is ardent as a love 
that is tense. This very word “tense” is almost 
the original word. The love has to be “ tense,” 
stretched out, extended to the utmost limit of a 
grand comprehensiveness. The New Testament 
recognises different types and qualities of love, 
and there is no counsel in which it is more 
abounding than just in this counsel to push 
back the boundaries of a circumscribed affection 
so that it be characterised by a more spacious 
inclusiveness. There is love whose measure is 
that of an umbrella. There is love whose in- 
clusiveness is that of a great marquee. And 
there is love whose comprehension is that of 
the immeasurable sky. The aim of the New 
Testament is the conversion of the umbrella 
into a tent, and the merging of the tent into the 
glorious canopy of the all-enfolding heavens. 
Therefore does the writer of this very letter, in 
a second letter which he has written, give this 
very suggestive counsel, “add to brotherly love, 
love.” Which just means this: make your love 


CHAPTER IY. 7-11 167 


more tense; push back the walls of family love 
until they include the neighbour; again push 
back the walls until they include the stranger; 
again push back the walls until they comprehend 
the foe. The quality of our love is determined 
by its inclusiveness. At the one extreme there 
is self-love ; at the other extreme there is philan- 
thropy! What is the “tense,” the stretch of 
my love? What is its covering power? I do 
not wonder that the apostle proceeds to indicate 
the magnificent “ cover” afforded by a magnifi- 
cent love. ‘Love covereth a multitude of sins.” Verse 8 
Not the sins of the lover, but the sins of the 
loved! Love is willing to forget as well as to 
forgive! Love does not keep hinting at past 
failures and past revolts. Love is willing to 
hide them in a nameless grave. When a man, 
whose life has been stained and blackened by 
“a multitude of sins,” turns over a new leaf, 
love will never hint at the old leaf, but will 
rather seek to cover it in deep and healing 
oblivion. Love is so busy unveiling the promises 
and allurements of the morrow, that she has 
little time, and still less desire to stir up 
the choking dust on the blasted and desolate 
fields of yesterday. ‘Then drew near unto Him 
all the publicans and sinners.” ‘There’s a 
“cover” for you! “And behold, a woman in 
the city, which was a sinner, when she knew... 


168 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


stood at His feet behind Him weeping!” There’s 
a cover for you! ‘The Son of Man is come to 
seek that which is lost.” There’s a cover for 
you! I do not wonder that the great evangelical 
prophet of the Old Testament, in heralding the 
advent of the Saviour, should proclaim Him as 
“a hiding-place fromthe wind, a covert from the 
tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, and 
as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” 
“ Love covereth all things.” 

But we have not yet done with the apostle’s 
characterisation of the qualities of love. He 
adds a third word which confirms and enriches 
the other two. ‘True love, “ stretched-out” 

Verse 9 love, all-sheltering love, “ uses hospitality without 
murmuring.’ True love is a splendid host, a 
veritable Gaius in the lavish entertainment 
which it offers to weary and footsore pilgrims. 
In the primitive Christian day, the apostolic 
days, love opened the door and gave hospitality 
to the itinerant preachers as they went from 
place to place proclaiming the message of the 
Cross. Love opened the door to the persecuted 
refugees, driven from their homesteads because 
of their devotion to the Lord. There were many 
of them about, and the love-children were to 
keep an open door and a sharp look-out, and 
offer the welcome entertainment. Love is the 
very genius of hospitality ; it opens the “hospice” 


CHAPTER IV. 7-11 169 


in the stormy and perilous heights, and provides 
a travellers’ rest. Wherever love is, the hospice 
may be found! “Love never faileth.’ And 
the gracious ministry is all discharged so 
graciously; “without murmuring!” ‘There is 
no frown upon the face, no sense of “ put-out- 
ness” in the attention. It is all done, as 
Matthew Henry says, “in a kind, easy, hand- 
some manner,” as though the host had been 
almost impatiently waiting for the privilege, 
and yearning for its speedy approach. 

Now, brethren, the King is at the gate! 
Soon His hand will be upon the latch! How 
shall we prepare for Him? In sound-mindedness, 
in spiritual sobriety, and in a love which is ever 
straining after more and more spacious breadth 
of gracious and generous hospitality. How 
shall these dispositions express themselves ? 
What shall be the medium of affection? What 
shall be the line of our ministry? The apostle 
provides the answer: “ According as each hath Verse 10 
received a gift.” We must work through what 
we have received. ‘“ What hast thou that thou 
hast not received?” Our members, our senses, 
our mental aptitudes, our spiritual endowments! 
They are all the gifts of the King! We must 
use them all in the ministry of love. But 
beyond all these there is the mysterious and 
indescribable gift of our own individuality. We 


170 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


are each as unique in personality as we are each 
distinctive in face. Individuality is a unique 
gift, and is divinely purposed for unique service. 
We must reverently consecrate our individuality 
to the King’s use, that it may become the 
Verses minister of His own “manifold grace” and 
10,11 « strength.” In this subordination the individu- 
ality is preserved intact and unimpaired. Work- 
ing through us, the Holy Ghost will, shall I say, 
impinge upon the world in a somewhat different 
form than from the life of any of our fellows. 
If an electric current be led through a series of 
several different materials, its appearance in the 
outer world will vary with each wire. “In a 
platinum wire it may appear as light, in an iron 
one as heat, round a bar of soft iron as magnetic 
energy, led into a solution as a power that 
decomposes and recombines.” So in many 
individualities are there “ diversities of opera- 
tions, but the one Spirit.” What we have to 
do is to take our individuality, “according as 
each hath received the gift,’ and so reverently 
consecrate it that “the manifold grace” may 
work a unique ministry, and by “the strength 
which God supplieth” we may manifest a daily 
salvation which shall be to the glory of God. 
Here then, I conclude. I think that no one 
can be made to stumble by any narrowness and 
irrelevancy in the apostle’s counsel. His com- 


CHAPTER IV. 7-11 big 


mandment is exceeding broad. How shall we 
prepare for the coming of the King? What 
can be more reasonable than the response I 
have attempted to expound? In sound-minded- 
ness, in spiritual sobriety, in an affection which 
is ever seeking greater inclusiveness, and work- 
ing through the distinctive gifts of the con- 
secrated individual life. I tell you, if this be 
my condition, I shall not be afraid “at His 
coming.” He may come in a moment, and very 
suddenly, in the noontide, or the midnight, or 
at the cock-crow; come when He may, I shall 
“love His appearing.” Living calmly, in the 
atmosphere of affection, and in the mystic 
strength of consecration, I shall know Him as 
my friend. The present Bishop of Durham has 
told us of a beloved friend of his who narrated to 
him a strangely vivid dream which he had long, 
long years ago. Let me tell it in the Bishop’s 
words. “Through the bed-chamber window 
seemed to shine on a sudden an indescribable 
light; the dreamer seemed to run, to look; and 
there, in the depths above, were beheld three 
forms. One was unknown, one the Archangel, 
One the Lord Jesus Christ. And at this most 
sudden sight that soul, the soul of one over 
whom, to my knowledge, the wunutterable 
solemnities of the unseen are wont to brood 
with almost painful power, was instantaneously 


172 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


thrilled with a rapturous joy... unspeak- 
able and full of glory: ‘My Saviour, O my 
Saviour !’” 

I pray that when that light breaks upon us, 
not in the ministry of a dream, but in the 
veritable coming of the Lord; when for you 
and for me “the end of all things is at 
hand,” may we have so brooded on “the 
solemnities,” and so laboured in the gracious 
ministry of affection, that we too, “when He 
cometh,” shall be “instantaneously thrilled with 
raptuous joy, unspeakable and full of glory: 
‘My Saviour, O my Saviour!’” 


THE FIERY TRIAL 


1 PETER iv. 12-19 


Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 
among you, which cometh upon you to prove you, as though 
a strange thing happened unto you : but insomuch as ye are 
partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice ; that at the revela- 
tion of His glory also ye may rejoice with exceeding joy. 
If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye ; 
because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God resteth 
upon you. ) For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a 
thief, or an evil-doer, or as a meddler in other men’s matters: 
but of a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed ; 

. but let him glorify God in this name. For the time ts come 
Sor judgement to begin at the house of God: and tf it begin 
Jirst at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the 
gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, 
where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? Wherefore 
let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit 
their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator. 


“The fiery trial among you, which cometh upon Verse 12 
you to prove you.” But is it not one of the 
perquisites of sainthood to be delivered from 
suffering? One would have anticipated that 
part of the inheritance of grace would be 
freedom from the fiery trial. The flames 
would never reach us. The enemy would 


be stayed, and we should sit down in happy 
173 


174 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


quietness at the King’s feast! But this is not 
the programme of Christianity. Christianity is 
almost alarmingly daring in the obtrusive 
emphasis which it gives to the darker elements 
in its programme. There is no attempt to hide 
or obscure them. No effort is made to engage 
our attention to the “ green pastures” and “ still 
waters,” and to distract us from the aftrighting 
valley of shadow and gloom. ‘‘ Whom the Lord 
loveth He chasteneth.” ‘In the world ye shall 
have tribulation.” ‘ Perfected through suffer- 
ings.” “Let him take up his cross daily and~ 
follow me.” “The fiery trial which is to try 
you.” These are not words which are addressed 
to “murderers” or “thieves,” or “ evil-doers,” 
or “busybodies”; they are quietly spoken to 
the saints, to men and women whose lives are 
pledged to virtue, and who are aspiring after 
the holiness of the perfected life in Christ. 

Then let us just note this: jour sufferings do 
not prove our religion counterfeit. Our many 
temptations do not throw suspicion on our 
sonship. Our trials are not the marks of our 
alienation. Do not let us think that we are 
strangers because our robes are sometimes 
stained with our blood. ‘Think it not strange,” 
says this much-schooled apostle, “‘ Think it not 
strange!” Don’t think you have never been 
naturalised — super-naturalised—that you are 


CHAPTER IV. 12-19 175 


still a foreigner, an outcast from the home of 
redemptive grace! These are the happenings 
of the home-country! They are not the marks 
of foreign rule. They are the signs of paternal 
government. You are in your Father’s house! 
God will convert the apparent antagonism into 
a minister of heavenly grace. The oppressive 
harrow, as well as the genial sunshine, is part 
of the equipment needed for the maturing and 
perfecting of the fruits of the earth. 

What, then, is the purpose of “the fiery 
trial” ? What is the meaning of this permitted 
ministry of sufferimg ? Well, in the first place, 
it tests character. It discharges the purpose of 
an examination. An examination, rightly re- 
garded, is a vital part of our schooling. It is 
a minister of revelation. It unfolds our strengths 
and our weaknesses. And so it is in the larger 
examination afforded by the discipline of life. 
Our crises are productive of self-disclosures. 
They reveal us to ourselves, and I think the 
revelations are usually creative of grateful 
surprise. In the midst of the fiery trial we are 
filled with amazement at the fulness and strength 
of our resources. When the trial is looming we 
shrink from it in fear. ‘‘ We say one to another, 
‘‘T don’t know how I shall bear it!” And then 
the crisis comes, and in the midst of the fire 
we are calm and strong; and when it is past, 


176 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


how frequently we are heard to say, “I never 
st I could have gone through it!” And 
So “ probation worketh hope”; the heavy 
discipline is creative of assurance; the terror 
becomes the nutriment of our confidence. 

But the fiery trial not only tests by revealing 
character, a also strenglhens_and_ confirms it. 
Hard trial makes hard and _much-enduring 
muscle. The water that is too soft makes flabby 
limbs; it is not creative of bone. And cireum- 
stances which are too soft make no bone: they 
are productive of character without backbone. 
Luxuriousness is rarely the cradle of giants. It 
is not unsuggestive that the soft and bountiful 
tropics are not the home of the strong, indomi- 
table, and progressive peoples. The pioneering 
and progressive races have dwelt in sterner and 
harder climes. The lap of luxury does not 
afford the elementary iron for the upbringing 
of strong and enduring life. Hardness hardens; 
antagonism solidifies; trials innure and confirm. 
How commonly it has happened that men who, 
in soft circumstances, have been weak and 
irresolute, were hardened into fruitful decision by 
the ministry of antagonism and pain. “Thou 
art Simon”—a hearer, a man of loose hearsays 
and happenings; “Thou shalt be called Peter” 
—a rock, a man of hard, compact, and reselute 
convictions. But “Simon” became “ Peter” 


CHAPTER IV. 12-19 177 


through the ministry of the fiery trial. The 
man of “soft clothing” is in the luxury of kings’ 
houses; the hard man with the camels’ hair and 
the leathern girdle is away out in the hardships 
of the desert. “We must through much tribu- 
lation enter into the Kingdom of God.” 

But the fiery trial not only reveals and 
hardens the character, it also develops it by 
bringing out its hidden beauties. I am using 
the word develop as the photographer uses it. 
You know how he brings out the lines of his 
pictures. The picture is laid in the vessel, and 
the liquid is moved and moved across it; it 
passes over the face of the picture, and little by 
little the hidden graces are disclosed. ‘ All Thy 
billows are gone over me.” That is the Lord’s 
developer; it brings out the soft lines in the 
character. Under its ministry we pass “from 
strength to strength, “from grace to grace,” 
“from glory to glory.” 

And so the fiery trial tests and confirms and 
develops the character. I do not wonder that 
with conceptions such as these, and with such 
outlooks, the apostle calls upon his Christian 
readers to lift up their heads, to walk not as 
children of shame, but as children of rejoicing. 
And look at the motives he adduces to create 
the spirit of rejoicmg. “Look at your com- 
panionship,” he seems to say. ‘Ye are par- Verse 13 


178 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


takers of Christ's sufferings.” In the furnace with 
you is “one like unto the Son of Man.” We 
have scarcely touched the fringe of life if we 
have not discovered what that conviction means 
to men. ‘Yet I do persuade myself,” says 
Samuel Rutherford to one of his correspondents, 
“ye know that the weightiest end of the cross 
of Christ that is laid upon you lieth upon your 
strong Saviour; for Isaiah saith, ‘In all your 
afflictions he is afflicted.’ O blessed Second, 
who suffereth with you! And glad may your 
soul be even to walk in the fiery furnace with 
one like unto the Son of Man, who is also the 
Son of God. Courage! Up with your heart! 
When ye do tire He will bear both you and 
your burden.”” And writing to Lady Forrest the 
same saintly writer gives this comfort: “I hear 
that Christ hath been so kind as to visit you 
with sickness. He would have more service of 
you. He is your loving husband, and would 
draw you into the bonds of a sweeter love.” 


Look at your companionship! ‘“ Rejoice,” in- 
asmuch as the Lord is with you in unceasing 
fellowship. 


And look at the character of the Operator. 

Verse 14 ‘‘ The Spirit of glory resteth upon you.” In the fiery 
trial the Operator is the Glory-spirit, the Maker 

of glory. As though He were controlling the 
hardships and trials and converting them into 


CHAPTER IV. 12-19 179 


ministers of beauty and grace. The immeasur- 
able waters of Niagara generate electrical power 
which a man may use to engrave a name upon 
a jewel; and the Spirit of Glory can so employ 
these waters of sorrow as to write our Father’s 
name upon our foreheads. In some hands the 
trial would be an agent of indiscriminate de- 
struction. In some hands the implements in a 
surgery would be implements of mutilation and 
murder; in the hands of a wise and confident 
surgeon they are the ministers of sanity and 
health. “ The Spirit of Glory resteth upon you,” 
and He has control of the implements! He sits 
by the fire. Look at the character of the 
Operator, and you will be filled with rejoicing. 

And look at the splendid issues of it all. ‘“ At Verse 13 
the revelation of His glory ye may rejoice with 
exceeding joy.’ Why this jubilant rejoicing? 
Because this shall be the ultimate issue: when 
the Lord is revealed in His glory it will be 
disclosed that we are sharers of the glory. The 
Spirit of Glory, which has rested upon us, will 
have wrought upon us, and brought us into the 
Master’s likeness. We “shall be manifested 
with Him in glory.” 

Well, now, if this be the ministry of trial, 
surely the fiery trial is a solemn necessity. 
Luxurious ease would destroy us. If the winds 
remained asleep we should remain weak and 


180 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


enervated. Life would drowse along in effemi- 
nate dreams. The glory of the perfected life 
would never be ours. And so life must have its 
crises. Judgments are necessities. Judgment 
must “ begin at the House of God.” Even the 
consecrated folk need the testing, the strengthen- 
ing, the confirming discipline of suffering and 
pain. Even Paul must be thrown into the fiery 
furnace! Even John must feel the bite of the 
stinging flame! And if that be so with Paul 
and Peter and John, how much more for you 
and me! “If the righteous scarcely be saved, 
where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?” 
What a work is our salvation! These wills, 
these desires, these yearnings, these bodies! 
What work God has with us, to lift us into His 
own glory! 


TENDING THE FLOCK 


1 Peter v. 1-7 


The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow- 
elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also 
a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Shepherd the 
flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, 
not of constraint, but willingly, according unto God; nor 
yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind ; neither as lording 
at over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves 
ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall 
be manifested, ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth 
not away. Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder. 
Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one 
another: for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to 
the humble. ( Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty 
hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time ; casting all 
your anxiety upon Him, because He careth for you. 


“T exhort.” Let me fix your eyes upon the Verse1 
counsellor. There is an evangel in the speaker, 
altogether apart from the inspiration of his 
message. We are contemplating Simon Peter 
in the ripe, assured strength of his evening- 
time. “TI exhort.” Shall we pause a moment 
that we may invite the ministry of remini- 


scence? By what chequered way has he 
181 


182 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


reached this bourn of clear and quiet assurance ? 
Let me recall some of the prominent landmarks. 
“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of 
men.” ... “Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God.” .. . “Even if I must die with 
Thee, yet will I not deny Thee.” ... “Then 
began he to curse and swear, saying, I know 
not the man.” ... “Lord, Thou knowest all 
things; Thou knowest that I love Thee.” . 

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter, 
they marvelled.” ... “I, a fellow-elder, a 
witness of the sufferings of Christ, a partaker 
of the glory that shall be revealed.” It is a 
wonderful evolution! From the call of the 
spring-time to the ripe, confident testimony 
of the autumn-time! And between the two 
extremes what a medley of sharp and changeful 
experience! The rough, untutored, impulsive 
character-force has been washed and disciplined 
into discerning and fruitful strength. And now 
I picture Simon Peter as an old saint, bearing 
the marks of the stern fight; sealed with the 
brands of the Lord Jesus; his face ht up with 
the sober light of chastening memory and 
glorious hope. “TI am a witness of the suffer- 
ings.” Think of the content of the phrase 
when it falls from the lips of Simon Peter! 
How much he had seen which he now recalled 
in tears! “Could ye not watch with Me one 


CHAPTER V. 1-7 183 


hour?” He had seen that lonely and grief- 
filled Presence. “And the Lord turned and 
looked upon Peter.” He had caught a glimpse 
of that betrayed face, and the features were 
burnt into his soul in lines of remorseful fire. 
“T am a witness of the sufferings.” All the 
black and heart-rending events of Gethsemane 
and Calvary crowd the witnessing, for they 
were never absent for an hour from the 
Apostle’s so penitent and regretful heart. But 
Calvary did not eclipse Olivet. The terrors of 
the Crucifixion were looked at in the soft light 
of the Resurrection dawn and in the startling 
wonders of the Ascension. And so yesterday 
became linked with the morrow. Memory was 
transfigured into hope. The witness became a 
herald. The denier became the heir. “I am 
a witness of the sufferimgs of Christ, who am 
also a partaker of the glory that shall be 
revealed.” 

And now let us listen to the scarred old 
warrior’s counsel. He is giving fatherly in- 
struction to the officers of the Church. He 
is speaking to the elders, the overseers, the 
appointed leaders of these hallowed primitive 
assemblies. I wish to give the counsel the 
widest application, that it may include the 
outermost circle of Christian service. If we 
limited the counsel to bishops, then we should 


184 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


all listen to the tremendous charge as critical 
or unconcerned spectators. If we included all 
pastors and deacons, still the unconcerned 
majority might listen with perilous relish to 
the implied indictment. The counsel applies 
to every kind of Christian leadership. Wher- 
ever man or woman assumes the post of leader 
of souls, guide to the home of God—whether 
it be among children or adults, in visiting the 
hospitals or in going from house to house, in 
the pastorate or in the class, in the obscure 
mission or in the conspicuous phases of cathedral 
labours—the Apostle’s counsel is pertinent, and 
unfolds the primary dispositions which are the 
secrets of prosperous service. 
Mark, then, the opening word of the counsel. 
Verse 2 ‘‘ Shepherd the flock of God which is among 
you.” It is a very wealthy and suggestive 
word which forms the initial note of the 
Apostle’s instructions. The Authorised Version 
translates it “feed,” the Revised Version trans- 
lates it ‘‘tend.” Each element is significant of 
the shepherd, and both are essential to the full 
interpretation of the apostle’s mind. It is a 
wonderful sphere of service which is disclosed 
to me. I am told that I can be the nourisher 
of my brother; I am told that I can also be 
his defence. I can “feed” him; I can stand 


between him and his hunger. I can tend him; 


CHAPTER V. 1-7 185 


I can stand between him and his perils. That is 
a beautiful ministry which God entrusts to me. 
I can get in among my brother’s wants and take 
him bread. I can feed his faith, his hope, his 
love. Ican lead him into “green pastures and 
by still waters,” and discover to him the means 
of growth and refreshment. I can get in among 
my brother’s perils and erect extra safeguards 
and defences. It is possible to love my way in 
between my brother and his appetites, between 
his spirit and his snares. That is our ministry, 
whatever be the precise character of the 
leadership we have assumed. It matters little 
or nothing whether we be called bishops, 
pastors, teachers, visitors; our mission is to 
feed and to fend, to take nourishing bread, 
and to offer protective shelter. If a man 
stand between his brother and spiritual neces- 
sity, or between his brother and spiritual peril, 
he is discharging the office of a day’s-man, a 
mediator, a faithful under-shepherd, working 
loyally under the leadership of the “chief 
Bishop and Shepherd of our souls.” 

How, then, is this ministry of feeder and 
fender to be successfully discharged? How is 
it to be saved from offence and impertinence ? 
How shall we gain admission to move among 
the needs and perils of our brother’s soul? 
How shall we gain an entrance into his secret 


186 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


place ? What dispositions are required in order 
to back the ministry and make it spiritually 
effective? The apostle acts as our counsellor, 
and gives us detailed instruction in all these 


things. 
First of all, it must be the service of willing- 
Verse2 ness. ‘“ Not of constraint, but willingly.” One 


volunteer is worth two pressed men. I am not 
quite sure whether the proverbial saying is 
pertinent. I am doubtful if an equation can 
be established. On the high planes of spiritual 
service no number of pressed men can take 
the place of a volunteer. But can men be 
pressed into unfruitful spiritual service? Yes, 
men are sometimes constrained by what they 
call “the pressure of circumstances.” They say 
that they “could not very well get out of it.” 
They had been importuned so frequently that 
for very shame they could decline no longer. 
If they could have found another excuse, 
another excuse would have been offered. But 
their inventiveness failed them. Their excuse- 
chamber was empty. They simply had to do 
it! Their wills had no part in the hallowed 
service. They were just pressed into the 
ministry by circumstantial constraint which 
they could no longer comfortably resist. What 
shall we say about it? Just this—that people 
whose wills are not in the service, are really 


CHAPTER V. 1-7 187 


not in the service at all. Where there is no 
spontaneity the fervour is fictional, and we 
shall never thaw the wintry bondage of men 
by painted and theatrical fires. 

But there is a loftier constraint than the 
pressure of importunity and the failure of the 
supply of excuse. There is the constraint of 
conscience, which sends men into service 
impelled by the sense of duty. But even the 
conscience-labourer may toil and toil away in 
a fruitless task. Men may do their duty 
unwillingly, and the absence of the will deprives 
their service of the very atmosphere which 
would render it efficient. Duty, without the 
inclination of the will, is cold and freezing, 
and never makes a warm and genial way into 
the hidden precincts of another’s soul. If I 
were stretched in pain and sickness I would 
not care to be nursed by duty. All the atten- 
tions might be regular and methodical, and yet I 
should mourn the absence of the something which 
makes the ministry winsome and alive. “TI just 
love to have her near my bed,” said a hospital 
patient to me the other day, speaking of her 
Christly and consecrated nurse. That is duty 
with an atmosphere. It is duty transfigured. 
Duty may make people righteous; alone it will 
not make them good. “And scarcely for a 
righteous man, will one die; yet peradventure 


188 THE. FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


for a good man some would even dare to die.” 
I do not think that duty will carry us far into 
the deep hungers and weaknesses of our 
fellow-men. We need the “plus,” the gracious 
inclination of the will, the leaning of the 
entire being in the line of service. We need 
to be swayed, not by the compulsion of external 
pressure, not even by the lonely sovereignty 
of the moral sense, but by an inward constraint, 
“warm, sweet, tender,” the unfailing impulse 
of grace, abiding in us as “a well, springing 
up into eternal life.” “Not of constraint, but 
willingly.” 
Secondly, our service must be the service of 
Verse 2affection. “ Nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready 
mind.” We are not to be moved in our service 
by any hunger for external reward, and do 
not let us think that external rewards are 
exhausted under the single category of money. 
Men may take up Christian service to enrich 
their purse, to enlarge their business, and in 
many ways to advance a transient interest, 
But we may also labour in the hunger for 
recognition and applause, and I am not sure 
which of the two occupies the lower sphere, 
he who hungers for money, or he who thirsts 
for applause. A preacher may dress and smooth 
his message to court the public cheers, and 
labourers in other spheres may bid for pro- 


CHAPTER V. 1-7 189 


minence, for imposing print, for grateful 
recognition. All this unfits us for our task. 
It destroys the fine sense of the shepherd. 
It destroys his perception of the needs and 
perils of the sheep. It despoils us of our 
bread, and robs us of our staff, and we have 
neither food nor protection to offer to our 
hungering and endangered fellow-man. “Not 
for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.” Do 
thy service, not for the praises and rewards 
of men, but as Martin Luther says, ‘‘ from the 
very bottom of the heart, out of love to the 
thing itself, out of joyous devotion to the work 
which the Lord thy God gives thee.” 

The service of willingness! The service of 
affection! It must also be the service of 


humility! “ Neither as lording it over the verses3-£ 
flock . . . gird yourselves with humility, to 
serve one another.” That is most subtle and 


needed counsel. Who would have expected 
that spiritual pastors would be warned against 
lordliness and pride? Who would have imagined 
that men who are ministering the gospel of low- 
liness should themselves be exalted in pride! 
It is one of the most insidious temptations which 
beset the working disciple of Christ. Pride ever 
lurks just at the heels of power. Even a little 
authority is prone to turn the seemly walk into 
a most offensive strut. But the peril is subtler 


190 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


still, While I assume to feed my brother, my 
own soul may be a-hungered. While I am 
helping his defence, the enemy may be ravaging 
my own land. The peril is subtler still. Some- 
how we come to find a virtue in preaching and 
teaching, and our preaching and teaching become 
our doing. Teachers and preachers are somehow ~ 
allured outside their own message—its evangel 
and its warnings—and we are solaced and 
soothed by the lonely fact that we have shared 
in its proclamation. It is a terrible temptation, 
and if we yield to it, it swells the heart with 
lordliness and pride. What is our security? 
“All of you gird yourselves with humility.” 
Put on the apron of the slave! Go into the 
awful presence of the Lord, and contemplate 
His glory until the vision brings you wonder- 
ingly to your knees! “Go, stand on the mount 
before the Lord.” That is the place where we 
discover our size! No man speaks of his great- 
ness who has been closeted with God. Lordliness 
changes into holy fear, and pride bows down in 
reverent supplication. Oh, we must come from 
the Presence-chamber into the pulpit! Nay, the 
pulpit itself must be the Presence-chamber, and 
the man must preach in the consciously realised 
presence of the Almighty and Eternal God. 
The Lord will have no proud men in His service. 
Such men are self-appointed. “I never knew 


CHAPTER V. 1-7 i91 


you.” Their names are not to be found in the 
Lamb’s Book of Life. “God resisteth the proud.” 
He stands in the way and fights them! “The 
angel of the Lord stood in the way for an 
adversary.” It is an appalling thought; our 
strongest antagonist may be the Lord whom we 
are professing to serve. ‘God resisteth the 
proud.” Let us hasten to add the complementary 
evangel. “And giveth grace to the humble.” 
It is the humble, kneeling soul that receives 
ineffable outpourings of Divine grace. Grace 
ever seeks out the lowliest. 


It streams from the hills, 
It descends to the plain. 


To the humble soul God gives the very dynamics 
of fruitful service. In all spiritual ministry it 
is only grace that tells. Nothing else counts! 
Other gifts may amuse, may interest, may allure, 
but grace alone can engage in the labour of 
spiritual redemption. The servants of the Lord 
are to be filled with grace, and their overflow 
will constitute their influence upon their fellows. 
Out of them shall flow “rivers of water of life.” 
“God giveth grace to the humble.” 

Lastly, it must be the service of trustfulness. 
“ Casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He 
careth for you.” Take your alarms to Him. 
Talk out your fears with him. Lay them upon 


Verse 7 


192 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


Him in quiet assurance. And this must be done 
in the interests of spiritual economy. Terrible 
is the waste of spiritual energy which results 
from anxiety and fear. To allow anxiety to 
rear itself in the soul is like permitting rank 
weeds to grow in the flower-bed; and the worthier 
growths, being deprived of nutriment, grow 
faint and droop away. ‘He careth for you.” 
In these high matters the Lord is doing the 
thinking. 

Oh, could we but relinquish all 

Our earthly props, and simply fall 

On Thine almighty arms ! 


And what is to be the reward of such services ? 
Verse 4‘‘ When the chief Shepherd shall be manifested 
. . .’ Some day we are to see Him face to 
face. What then? “Ye shall receive the 
crown of glory.’ The victory crown will be 
composed of leaves and flowers which will never 
fade away; of leaves which are the tokens of 
abiding spring; of flowers which are the tokens 

of ever-enriching glory. 


THROUGH ANTAGONISMS TO 
PERFECTNESS 


1 PETER v. 8-10 


Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a 
roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour : 
whom withstand stedfast in the faith, knowing that the 
same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are 
in the world. And the God of all grace, who called you 
unto His eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered 
alittle while, shall Himself perfect, stablish, strengthen you. 


“The devil . . . walketh about, seeking whom he Verse 8 
may devour.” Peter's memory is here helping 
Peter’s message. Reminiscence is shaping his 
counsel. It does seem as though at times this 
apostle dips his pen in his own blood. At any 
rate, the living crimson of his own experience 
abundantly colours the page. The epistle is 
hortatory: it is also biographical. The docu- 
ment is alive. It unfolds a faith; it also 
records a pilgrimage. In the passage which is 
immediately before us one feels how the life 
emerges as the commentary upon the message. 
Let me for a moment identify portions of this 
dim background, and set them in relation to 
193 13 


194 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


the text. Here is the foreground, “God... 
who called you.” Here is the background, 
“And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after 
Me.” Here is the text, “Be watchful.” Here 
is the context, “Simon, Simon, sleepest thou? 
Couldst thou not watch one hour?” Here is 
the warning, “Your adversary, the devil... 
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 
Here is the reminiscence, “Simon, Simon, Satan 
hath desired to have thee.” Here is the evangel, 
“The God of all grace . .. will make you 
perfect.” Here is the experience, “Thou art 
Simon [hearer]; thou shalt be Peter” [a rock]. 
I say that this man’s life-blood stains his speech. 
His words are life, not the expression of specu- 
lation, but the utterance of a travail, the ripe 
judgments of a man who has “known and felt.” 
And now he lays down his pen for a moment 
and surveys his chequered days. He notes the 
innumerable allurements which have beset his 
path. He recalls the gay fascinations, the in- 
centives to pride, the lure of power, the be- 
witchment of personal ambition. He marks the 
violence of vice, the tempestuous charge of 
passion, the terrific onrush of the blind and 
brutal forces of persecution. And all these 
confront the lonely wayfarer as he picks his 
way towards God. Life abounds in moral 
antagonisms. The empire of devilry runs right 


CHAPTER V. 8-10 195 


up to our gates. The destructive mouth is open 
on every side. The flesh lusts against the 
spirit. Life is filled with moral menace! All 
this the apostle sees as he contemplates his 
own pilgrimage, and so he takes up his pen 
again and writes this warning to his young, 
inexperienced, and somewhat wilful readers, 
“Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, 
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 

I think there is something very suggestive 
in the figures employed by the Bible to describe 
the approaches of the powers of evil and night. 
The devil has a fairly extensive wardrobe, 
but his common and more familiar guises are 
of three types—a serpent, an angel of light, 
and a roaring lion. It is in one or other of 
these three shapes that the forces of sin most 
frequently assail us. They come in the guise 
of the serpent. They beguile our senses. They 
pervert our judgment. They enchant our 
imaginations. We are fascinated, bewitched, 
paralysed by the influence of some illicit and 
unclean spell. The love of money becomes 
a fascination. If holds a man as under a 
wizard’s spell. Gambling becomes a _ bewitch- 
ment, a kind of spiritual bondage, in which 
the poor soul, in mesmerised inclinations, is 
slowly drawn towards its own destruction. The 
devil approaches as a serpent, and like fixed 


196 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


and stupefied birds we are in peril of dropping 
into his devouring jaws. He comes also in the 
guise of an angel of light. He poses as an 
evangelist. He plays the réle of one whose 
ministry it is to deepen our conception of the 
love and graciousness of God. He tells us that 
we do not think highly enough of God. He 
loves us too much to be pained by our small 
neglects. In fact, we best show our confidence 
in God by disregarding these neglects. Our 
trust is altogether too elementary and straight. 
We should cast ourselves down from a few 
pinnacles, and display to all men what a 
wonderful confidence we have in the out- 
stretched everlasting arms of God! Such is 
the devil as an angel of ight. Such is the devil 
as the preacher of the exceeding breadth of 
our Father’s love. Such is the devil intent on 
easing the strain of our religious life, relaxing 
its severities, and putting our feet into the way 
of a more spacious providence and peace. He 
would turn religion into thin refinements; he 
would convert a deep devotion into a glozing 
plausibility ; and he would transform a hallowed 
trust into light and flippant presumption. And 
the devil also comes as a roaring lion. The 
subtlety of the serpent is laid aside; he discards 
the sheen of the angel of light; he appears as 
sheer brutal force, an antagonist of terrific and 


CHAPTER V. 8-10 197 


naked violence, bearing down his victims under 
the heavy paws of relentless persecution. When 
the apostle wrote this letter, the lion was about; 
Nero was at work; the Christians were being 
hunted unto death, in the vain attempt at 
stamping out their faith and devotion to the 
Man of Nazareth, their Saviour and their Lord. 
He comes as a serpent, as an angel of light, as 
a roaring lion. He came to the Master as a 
serpent when he offered Him worldly power. 
He came as an angel of light when he sought 
to deepen and enrich His trust. He came to 
Him as a roaring lion in the blows and blas- 
phemies of the bloodthirsty multitude. This 
antagonism we have got to meet. How can 
we meet it in the hope of certain triumph ? 
Let us turn to the apostle’s counsel. 

“ Be sober.” The culture of sobriety! See to Verse 8 
it that you are not intoxicated, drugged into © 
any kind of perilous stupor. Keep your head 
clear. Be collected. ‘Be sober.” Now, the 
apostle is writing to men and women who are 
professedly the followers of Jesus Christ, and 
I think there are two perils in the religious life, 
both of which have their issue in moral stupor. 
We can lose our senses in excitement, and we 
can lose them in sleep. There are perils in 
sensationalism, and there are perils in encroach- 
ing drowsiness. There is the stupor which 


198 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


accompanies exaggeration, and there is the 
stupor of indifference, There is an excessive 
emotionalism which offers no barriers against 
the incursions of the devil. That is the peril of 
all revivals. Men may “lose their heads,” and 
their very excitement fosters a moral drowsiness 
which gives hospitality to the besetting forces 
of temptation and sin. It is among the highly 
emotional races that we find the profoundest 
~ moral sleep. ‘Be sober.” If your spirit be 
fervent, atall pains let it be clear. ‘“ The spirits 
of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” 
And on the other side there is the moral stupor 
which is the issue of a growing indifference, 
frequently initiated by small neglects. A man 
neglects the pointing of his house; damp enters; 
chills are born; disease is invited; death reigns. 
Relaxation in trifles is often the beginning of 
moral benumbment. Or it may be that a 
Christian man begins to take his pleasures in 
injurious measure. He used to sojourn in them; 
now he lives in them. “He that liveth in 
pleasure is dead.” The helpful potion has 
become an illicit drug. Taken in homeopathic 
doses the pleasure was a tonic and restorative ; 
taken in larger measure it became an opiate, 
and sank the life in perilous sleep. Whether 
our stupor be occasioned by excitement, or 
by neglect, or by dram-drinking, whether of 


CHAPTER V. 8-10 199 


alcoholic liquor or of drugging delights, such 
stupor gives the devil his opportunity, and 
offers him an open field in which his triumph 
is inevitable. “Be sober.” 

“ Be watchful.” The culture of perceptive- Verse 8 
ness! Not only be sober, but thoroughly 
awake, exercising your perceptions to the rarest 
and most fruitful refinement. We know the 
large possibilities which allure us in the cultiva- 
tion of the physical senses; equally large 
possibilities glow before us in the culture of the 
soul. Every exercise of watchfulness ensures 
us stronger sight. In the quest of the Divine we 
come to self-possession. In this line of culture 
the progress is from the greater to the less. 
The moral senses perceive ever finer and finer 
essences of good and evil. Moral progress is in 
the direction of the scruple. The finest scholar 
in the school of Christ is he who has the rarest 
perception of the moral trifle. ‘ He that doeth 
the least of these commandments is greatest in 
the kingdom of heaven.” Therefore, exercise 
thy moral senses, lest the hordes of evil should 
enter through the gates of unperceived neglects. 
“Be watchful.” 

“ Stedfast in the faith.” The culture of faith! Verse 9 
Our faith has to be “stedfast,’ firm, solid, 
impenetrable like a wall. Our faith has to be 
“stedfast,” a rampart of assurance, close, 


200 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


compact, and invulnerable. I have spoken of 
the cultivation of the moral sense, and of its 
progress in the detection of the trifle. Here 
_ we are taken to a plane of still higher educa- 
tion, the culture of the spiritual sense, the 
apprehension of God, proceeding toward the 
goal of calm and invincible assurance. To be 
stedfast in faith is to be sure of God. The 
grand attainment necessitates continual exercise, 
the ‘practice of the presence of God.” We 
must exercise our spiritual muscles in the 
ministry of communion with God, in praise and 
prayer and supplication and intercession; the 
exercise must be a wrestling, determined and 
continuous, until there steals into our life an 
awed sense of the Divine presence, and in the 
calmness of assurance we can confidently say, 
“T know that my Redeemer liveth.” How, 
then, shall we resist the devil, in whatsoever 
guise he may appear to us? By the culture of 
sobriety; by the culture of moral perceptive- 
ness; and by that culture of spiritual apprehen- 
sion which will lead us into the peace which is 
strength—“ the peace of God which passeth all 
understanding.” 

Now, let me carry your minds forward a 
moment to the contemplation of the all-sufficient 
dynamic, which may be ours in this inevitable 
conflict with the powers of evil and night. The 


CHAPTER V. 8-10 201 


culture of sobriety, the culture of perceptiveness, 
the culture of faith will open out our lives to 
Him whom the apostle calls “ the God of all grace,” Verse 10 
and by His presence we shall be energised. 
“The God of all grace!” Itis a beautiful and 
wealthy phrase, suggestive of varied endow- 
ment for varied and changing need. My need 
is manifold; the grace of God is also ‘“ mani- 
fold.” It will fit itself to my need as light or 
heat, as water or bread. My God is “the God 
of all grace,” now like sweet sunshine, now like 
burning flame, now like refreshing dew, now 
like the falling, softening ram. ‘The God of 
all grace,” a tower and a sword, my refuge and 
my shield. “My grace is sufficient for thee”; 
sufficient amid the beguilements and fascina- 
tions of the serpents; sufficient amid the 
plausible refinements of the angel of light; 
sufficient amid the apparently destructive forces 
of the lion of violence and persecution. The 
whole personality, in every faculty and power, 
shall be pervaded with Divine forces, and in 
thy God thou shalt find an exuberant fountain 
of mercy, goodness, and compassion. “My God 
shall make all grace to abound towards you.” 
And what is to be the ultimate glory? ‘“ The Verse 10 
God of all grace... shall Himself perfect, 
stablish, strengthen you.” Perfected! Established! 
Strengthened! Settled! They are all archi- 


202 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 


tectural metaphors, and are massed together to 
suggest the fine wholeness, consistency, finish 
and security of the grace-blessed character as it 
will appear upon the glorious fields of light! 
“ Kstablished,” every layer firmly and securely 
based! “Strengthened,” splendidly seasoned, 
with no danger of splitting or of warping! 
“Settled,” the entire structure resting evenly, 
comfortably, upon the best and surest founda- 
tion! These are the metaphors, and they 
unveil before me future attainments of blessed- 
ness, when the grace-filled character shall 
appear before God like a firm, well-finished, 
and gloriously proportioned building; all the 
manifold faculties co-operating in rare associa- 
tion; every power firm, decisive, and sanctified, 
and the entire life settled in holy calm and 
comfort on “the one foundation, Jesus Christ 
our Lord.” 
Now, see the glorious range of the entire 
Verse 10 passage. “The God of all grace, who called 
you unto His eternal glory.” That glory is not 
altogether remote. Even now we are beginning 
to share it. The spring is not yet here, but the 
lark is up! Glory awaits us in Emmanuel’s 
land; but we are finding heavenly tokens by 
the way. 


The man of grace hath found ~ 
Glory begun below. 


THE SECOND EPISTLE OF 
PETER 





LIBERTY! EQUALITY! FRATERNITY! 


2 Perer i152 


Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, 
to them that have obtained an equally precious faith with 
us in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus 
Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the know- 
ledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 


Wuen I had read this passage through many 
times in my effort to discover the inwardness 
and sequence of the apostle’s thought, there 
leapt into my mind the great watchword of the 
French Revolution, “ Liberty, Equality, Fra- 
ternity!” My text seemed to accept the prof- 
fered ministry of the watchword, and deigned 
to express itself through the heightened and 
glorified clarion of the Revolution. Here is 
the secret of liberty: “ A bondservant and apostle Verse 1 
of Jesus Christ.’ And here is the basis of 
equality: “ They that have obtained an equally 
precious faith with us.” And here is the very 
genius of fraternity: “Grace to you and peace Verse 2 
be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of 


Jesus our Lord.” Here, then, we have the 
205 


206 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


apostolic evangel of liberty, equality, and 
fraternity. 

Verse1 Here is the secret of liberty: “A bondslave of 
Jesus.” At the heart of all true freedom there 
is a certain bondage. Liberty without restraint 
is always self-destructive. The man who will 
not be bound to anything or anybody is always 
the most enslaved. Even anarchist societies 
are compelled to have some rules, and the 
making of a rule always implies the forging 
of a chain. Liberty must be limited if it is to 
be possessed. Every type of freedom has its 
chains. That is true of intellectual freedom. 
A man who would be intellectually free must 
pay obeisance to certain laws of thought. 
Mental disorder is a dark enslavement. The 
movement that springs from obedience to the 
laws of thought is a fruitful freedom. Free 
thought begins In wearing a chain; the mental 
freeman is at heart a slave. That is true also 
of political freedom. Political freedom consists 
in the recognition of individual rights. To 
assert my brother’s rights is to state a limit 
to my own. Here again we start with a chain. 
We recognise limitations. The real political 
freeman is at heart a slave. And this is true 
also of moral freedom; no man is morally free 
who does not pay homage to his conscience. 
Moral freedom springs from the sense of 


CHAPTER I. 1, 2 207 


obligation. Apart from that ligament, that 
bond, the whole body of the moral life 
falls limb from limb in inextricable chaos and 
confusion. 

Now let us lift the argument up to the 
highest type of freedom, the glorious freedom 
of the spirit. A great writer has defined the 
French notion of liberty as political economy 
and the English notion of liberty as personal 
independence. The Christian conception of 
liberty is inclusive of these, but infinitely 
greater. The most spacious of all liberties 
is liberation from self, and this kind of 
freedom springs from initial bondage. True 
freedom in the spirit begins in bondage to 
the Lord of Life. JI am not surprised, there- 
fore, that the Apostle Peter and the Apostle 
Paul, men who sing so loudly and so triumph- 
antly of the wealth and plenteousness of their 
freedom, should begin by proclaiming them- 
selves the Master’s slaves. ‘ Paul, a bondslave 
of Jesus.” “Peter, a bondslave and apostle 
of Jesus Christ.” Bondage is the secret of 
freedom. 

“Peter, a bondslave.” Let us see what is 
implied in this suggestive word. First, the 
term “bondslave” implies the acknowledgment 
of a fact. He isa slave. He has been bought. 
He is the Lord’s property. A great price has 


208 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


been paid for him. The apostle thought of his 
Master’s weary days and nights, of the tears 
and agonies of Gethsemane, of the shame and 
darkness and abandonment of Calvary. By all 
this expenditure on the part of the Saviour 
the apostle had been bought. He acknowledged 
his Master’s rights; he was his Master’s slave. 
Secondly, the term ‘“bondslave” implies the 
assumption of an attitude. The apostle puts 
himself in the posture of homage and obedience. 
His eye was ever watching the Master, his ear 
was ever listening. He was a slave, but not 
servile. I do not know what word just ex- 
presses it; I have been unable to find one. 
But this I know, that if we would learn what 
“slave” means in my text we must go to the 
love-sphere and seek the interpretation there. 
We must go where the lover slaves for .the 
loved, and yet calls her slavery exquisite 
freedom. A real loving mother, slaving for 
her child, would not change her slavery for 
mines of priceless wealth or for unbroken years 
of cushioned ease. “Thy willing bondslave 
I.” And thirdly, to be a slave implies the 
discharge of a mission. “Peter, a bondslave 
and apostle.” He is sent forth to do the 
Master’s will. The Master bids; he goes. 
Anywhere! Through the long, dusty, tiring 
highways of righteousness, or to the valley 


CHAPTER I. 1, 2 209 


f gloom; “through the thirsty desert or the 

dewy mead.” 

His not to reason why, 

His not to make reply, 

His but to do and die! 
But in that bondage the apostle finds a perfect 
freedom. All the powers of his being are 
emancipated and sing together in glorious 
liberty. Life that is fundamentally bound be- 
comes like an orchestra, every faculty con- 
stituting a well-tuned instrument, and all of 
them co-operating in the production of a 
harmony which is well-pleasing in the ears of 
God. 

And here we have the basis of equality: Hat 
“To them that have obtained an equally precious 
faith with us in the righteousness of our God.” 
Let us rearrange the words a little. This I 
think is the meaning: in the righteousness of 
God, the absolute justice and fairness of God, 
you have obtained an equally precious faith 
with us. God in His righteousness has, in this 
consummate gift of faith, made us gloriously 
equal. Now look at that. Where does the 
apostle begin his reasoning about our primary 
equality? He begins with the righteousness 
of God. God is perfectly fair. He is no re- 
specter of persons. I know this faith is troubled 
and disturbed by the material inequalities we 


210 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


see around us. Here is my little one safe at 
home in bed, and here is another little one, 
not much older, out upon the streets in the 
late night hungry and cold. Is God fair? Here 
is a good man in chronic pain; here is a bad 
man in health and wealth and honour. Yet 
God is righteous in His purpose! He does not 
treat us like puppets and marionettes. He has 
endowed us with brain and conscience and 
heart and will, and He has committed to us 
the power by which many of these gross in- 
justices can be rectified. If the Church of the 
living God were to awake from her sleep to- 
day you and I know how much could be done 
to rearrange material comforts, and to crush 
and destroy many things which make for misery, 
disease, and death. While our sword is rusting, 
and our couch has almost become our tomb, do 
not let us raise a mere debating-society topic 
and ask the question: Is God fair? It is for 
our own dignity, and for the disciplining and 
perfecting of the race, that our God has com- — 
mitted unto us the power by which many of 
these burdensome iniquities may be removed. 
But, leaving all these, let it be said that in the 
great primary things, the things out of which 
all other equalities take their spring, we may 
be grandly equal. We may all obtain an 
equally precious faith, the faith-dynamic which 


CHAPTER I. 1, 2 211 


can remove mountains. Faith itself is a gift 
of God, and in this all men may be equal. 
You and Paul! The Salvation Army Captain 
and Martin Luther! “Precious faith,” the 
apostle calls it, precious because of the wealth 
which through it comes into the life. “ Faith 
buys wine and milk,” says an old commentator. 
Faith goes|into the country of God among His 
vineyards, and out among His fields, and eats 
and drinks the rare and sweet and toothsome 
things. I say that in this great primary matter 
we may all be equal, and in this fundamental 
equality all other healthy equalities will find 
their impulse and resource. 

And lastly, we have here the genius of frater- 
nity. “Grace to you and peace be multiplied in 
the knowledge of God and of Jesus.” How deep 
and exquisite is the spirit of fraternity! What 
do these people seek for one another? Know- 
ledge! “Knowledge of the Lord.” And this 
means the advanced stages of a science, the 
most perfect learning, the riper unfoldings of 
the glory of God. They are ambitious for one 
another, that spiritual obscurities may be clari- 
fied, and that the partial may be perfected. A 
little while ago, at the dawning of the day, I 
looked out over a great stretch of country from 
the vantage ground of a lofty summit. I could 
only see things dimly, in vague and imperfect 


Verse 2 


212 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


outline. There beneath me lay stretched out 
into the far distance a long, white streak of dull 
silver; and there rested a grey cloud; and 
yonder loomed a dark botch which seemed to 
be a remnant of the departing night. But the 
light came on apace, and my knowledge was 
advanced and perfected. The thin white streak 
turned out to be a river! The bank of grey 
mist revealed itself as a lake! The dark botch, 
which seemed like the belated baggage of the 
night, revealed itself as a forest! “The glory 
of the Lord shall be revealed.” ‘Now I know 
in part, but then...!” “Grace to you and 
peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God.” 
Out of this advanced and advancing knowledge 
there is to come a multiplication of grace and 
peace. Grace is to be multiplied; the single 
drops are to become showers; the solitary rays 
are to glow like the noon. And peace is to be 
multiplied, deepened, heightened, and enriched! 
Is not this the very genius of fraternity? What- 
thing more beautiful can brotherhood grow than 
wishes and intercessions like these ? 


THE CHRISTIAN’S RESOURCES 


2 PETER i. 1-4 


Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to 
them that have obtained an equally precious faith with us in 
the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ : Grace 
to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and 
of Jesus our Lord ; seeing that His Divine power hath 
granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and 
godliness, through the knowledge of Him that called us by 
His own glory and virtue ; whereby He hath granted unto 
us His precious and exceeding great promises ; that through 
these ye may become partakers of the Divine nature, having 
escaped from the corruption that ts in the world by lust. 


Here is the apostle reckoning up his resources 
in the spirit. What has he got in the bank? 
Divine power, glory, virtue. How is the wealth Verse 3 
of the bank given out to him? In “exceeding 
great and precious promises”; in “all things 
that pertain to life and godliness.” And what 
is accomplished by this abundant and lavishly 
distributed wealth? ‘ That through these ye may Verse 4 
become partakers of the Divine nature, having 
escaped from the corruption that is in the 
world by lust.” Where had the apostle gained 


the knowledge of his resources? He had found 
213 


214 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


them in the fellowship of the Lord Jesus, and 
he was never weary of reciting his discovery 
to others. We may be sure that when the 
Apostle Paul went up to Jerusalem, and tarried 
with Peter, it would be of these marvellous 
riches that the saintly fisherman would speak. 
“T went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode 
with him fifteen days.” This well-trained and 
expert student, who had sat at the feet of 
Gamaliel, and who had proved to be one of his 
most alert and progressive disciples, goes up 
to Jerusalem to sit at the feet of another 
teacher, the fisherman Peter from the Galilean 
lake! “I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, 
and abode with him fifteen days.” The pupil 
of Gamaliel wanted to hear from the lips of the 
fisherman all that his memory could recall and 
all that tongue could tell of those three eventful 
years! Long into the night they would sit and 
talk; long after the last wayfarer had gone 
home, and the sounds in the streets were stilled! 
The pupil could never get enough of the story, 
and the teller of the story never grew tired in 
its recital, and many times, in those crowded 
fifteen days, the dawn looked in through the 
lattice and found these sleepless men still busied 
in the story of their Lord. Peter would lead 
the eager and reverent steps of his new kins- 
man all the way across the years—the call on 


CHAPTER I. 1-4 215 


the beach that made him a disciple, the strange 
revealing miracle on the lake, the sermon on 
the hill, the private communions with the twelve 
when the crowd had gone away, the awful and 
overwhelming splendour of the transfigured 
Presence on the Mount: then in hushed and 
broken voice Peter would tell of Gethsemane, 
of the betrayal, of the scene among the servants 
in the hall, of his own denial, of his Master’s 
broken-hearted look, of the scourge and the 
crown of thorns, and the ribaldry and agonies 
of Calvary; and then the fisherman-teacher 
would recover his tone and feelings again as 
he related the wonders of the Resurrection, and 
all the gracious surprises of those altogether 
surprising forty days, until this pupil of Gamaliel, 
this once-while persecutor of the Saviour, could 
scarcely tell whether he was in the body or out 
of it! Depend upon it, those fifteen days with 
Peter left uneffaceable marks upon the mind 
and soul of Paul. 

Well, now, ours is not the privilege of hearing 
that story from the lips of the fisherman-saint ; 
but if I look at my text aright I think that here 
Peter puts his finger upon what he conceived 
to be the three great characteristics of his 
- Master’s life. It is something to have the 
words this man employs when his eyes sweep 
across the marvellous experiences which he had 


216 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


been privileged to share. What does he think 
about it all? What are the things which stand 
out in predominant distinction? If there are 
hills and mountains in a life altogether super- 
lative, what are the mountains? And here, I 
think, is the apostle’s answer, given in three of 
the great words which lie like the great founda- 
tions of my text—His “Divine power,” His 
“ olory,” His “ virtue.” 

That is supremely interesting as coming to us 
from one so human, so altogether akin to us 
as the Apostle Peter. When he flings his mind 
back in the contemplation of his Master, he 
summarises his ever-fresh impressions in the 
words, “power,” “virtue,” “glory.” That is 
what Peter found in the Lord: and that is 
what we may find in the Lord to-day. 

Verse3 What have we in the bank? Divine power. 
In what had Peter witnessed the power? He 
had marvelled at the Master’s power over Him- 
self. He had stood in silent wonder as he gazed 
at Jesus’ self-possession and self-control. It 
was all so opposed to his own self-distraction, 
his self-dissipation and indecision. He had 
marked his Master’s power of patience, His 
refusal to be hurried into any precipitate action, 
His quiet waiting for the appointed time: 
“Mine hour is not yet come.” He had witnessed 
the Lord’s inexhaustible patience in the presence 


’ 


CHAPTER I. 1-4 217 


of His foes. How full of waiting gentleness He 
was through all those three years! How He 
bore with Judas, and how eagerly He watched 
for signs of his return. He knew him, He 
pleaded with him; even when Judas was intent 
on betrayal He held him as by a hair. And 
Peter had seen the Lord’s patience with His 
friends. It takes an immense storage of power 
to be patient with dull people. And the Lord’s 
disciples had been very dull, and they had 
imbibed the lessons very slowly. ‘Do ye not 
yet understand?” “Oh, slow of heart to 
believe!” And yet the lesson had been quietly 
repeated, and no sign of irritableness was wit- 
nessed in the Master’s speech and behaviour. 
He condescended to the level of the dullest- 
witted disciple, and patiently bore with him as 
he learned the elements of the gospel of grace. 
I say Peter had gazed upon all this—it had been 
a daily phenomenon—and now when he looked 
back upon it all, and recalled his impressions 
of these marvellous years, he was re-impressed 
with the wealth of the “ Divine power” of his 
Redeemer. 

But Peter had also witnessed the Master’s 
power over others. He had seen His, trans- 
figuring influence over their souls. He had 
seen faces illumined by His touch. He had 
watched the lighting up of a darkened life. 


218 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


He had- seen the rekindling of a Magdalene 
and the restoration of a Zaccheus. He had 
seen the cold, paralysing burden of guilt fall 
away at the imperative of the Lord’s command: 
“Thy sins be forgiven thee.” And when the 
once paralysed body buoyantly stepped away 
from the Master’s presence, Peter detected 
behind the released body a quickened and 
liberated soul. 

Peter had also seen the transfiguring power 
of the Lord upon the minds of others. He had 
seen Him break the tyranny of mental bondage, 
the sovereignty of vicious thinking, and he 
had seen the oppressor stand clothed and in 
his right mind. He had finally witnessed the 
Lord’s power over the bodies of men. He could 
command the forces of health, and they came ~ 
at His bidding. He could marshal them as an 
army and antagonise disease and drive it away. 
He had seen leprosy pass out of a man’s face 
like a tide retiring from the beach. He had 
seen the mystic element of life return into a 
vacant body, and all its functions and faculties 
were restored. Is there any wonder that, when 
Peter gazed back upon all these things, his 
soul should bow in holy reverence in the con- 
templation of the Master’s power? 

What else did the apostle find emphasised 
in his retrospect? He was confronted by the 


CHAPTER I. 1-4 219 


all-predominant peak of the Lord’s “virtue.” Verse 3 
The moral goodness of His Master was never 
away from his sight. And let us remember 
that Peter now uses words with the Saviour’s 
contents. He is judging his Master by the 
Master’s own standards. There are many ways 
of using the same word, but he employs it in 
the highest significance. A scavenger may use 
the word “clean” as descriptive of a freshly 
swept road; a surgeon may use the word 
“clean” as applied to the instruments prepared 
for an operation; but how exacting is the 
second usage as compared with the first! And 
here is the word “virtue.” As employed by 
the world it has a very impoverished content, 
a kind of mere scavenger significance; but 
when employed by the Master it embraces 
absolute purity in the profoundest depths of 
the life. And I say Peter applies the Lord’s 
own standard to the Lord’s own life, and he 
pronounces it full of virtue. He had listened 
to His conversation, and never for one moment 
had the print of an unclean or unfair word 
crossed his Master’s lips. He had seen Him in 
His dealings with others, and never had a 
suggestion of double-dealing appeared in His 
behaviour. He had seen Him in His public 
life, and marked how He had rejected the help 
of all immoral auxiliaries and of all short cuts 


220 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


to a coveted end. He had refused the ministry 
of fire and the support of the sword, and the 
countenance and patronage of kings. “ Wilt 
thou that we call down fire from heaven?” 
He would have none of it. “Lord, here are 
swords!” “They that take the sword shall 
perish by the sword.” ‘Then Herod questioned 
with Him in many words.” “He answered him 
nothing.” Peter was astounded at the austerity 
and holy sovereignty of his Master’s “ virtue.” 
And there is one other peak on which the 
apostle gazed when he surveyed the three 
Verse 3 wonderful years—the peak of Divine “glory.” 
What is glory? It is the bloom of character. 
It is majesty issuing in grace. It is solar 
glory falling upon infirm eyes in rays of softest 
shining. It is holiness consummated in tender- 
ness. It is truth in the radiant robes of mercy. 
It is the splendour of the Godhead shedding 
itself abroad in the delicacy of love. We must 
never dissociate grace from majesty; in reality 
we are unable to do it, but we are sorely 
tempted in thought to make the division. In 
literal truth we can no more dissociate them 
than we can separate the sun from the sunlight. 
“We beheld His glory, full of grace and truth.” 
So that when we are contemplating the glory 
of the Lord we are among the holy tendernesses, 
the majestic gentlenesses, the incorruptible love 


CHAPTER I. 1-4 221 


which forgives and is never defiled. Glory is 
the manifested presence of the Lord; warm and 
gentle as sunshine, and clean and pure as fire. 
Such are the outstanding characteristics of the 
Master’s life as recalled by this fisherman-seer, 
the man who once shrank from his Master in 
the awful consciousness of a tremendous dis- 
parity, but who now longs and prays for an 
even closer and intimate communion. 

Having named these three great significant 
wealths in the Lord Jesus, the apostle now pro- 
claims them as the possible resources of all men. 
Because these riches are in the Lord Jesus they 
constitute a reservoir of treasure from which all 
His disciples can draw. It is wealth in the bank, 
and to us is given the privilege and the right to 
draw out from the bank and find mercy and 
grace in every time of need. What, then, may 
we get from this Lord of power and virtue and 
glory? We may obtain “ precious and exceeding Verse 4 
great promises.” Now, what is a promise? In 
our modern usage it is rather a light-weight 
word. It is often used as synonymous with 
“wish,” and it carries no heavy significance. But 
the word as used in the New Testament has a 
far wider and vaster content. A promise of 
the Lord has a threefold purpose: it reveals an 
ideal, it kindles an ambition, it inspires a hope. 
We may take any promise we please in the Word 


222 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


of God, and we shall find it enshrines the secret 
of this threefold ministry. Take, for instance, 
the promise “I will give you rest.” Here we 
have the revelation of the ideal—the restful life, 
the harmonious life; not the still life of a 
mountain tarn, but the full, brimming life of the 
river. Rest is not the repose of stillness; it is 
the absence of friction, the music of co-operation. 
Here, then, is an ideal. As I contemplate it, it 
kindles an ambition, and my soul covets the 
gracious inheritance. A gospel promise trans- 
forms ambition into a mighty hope, and in the 
strength of a great expectancy the promised 
thing becomes possessed. So it is with all the 


promises of the Lord. They are “exceeding 


great ” the ideal stretches across the life and fills 
the firmament; and they are “precious,” pregnant 
with the possibility of inconceivable enrichment. 
But all this is not enough. A promise may 
reveal an ideal, and it may kindle an ambition, 
and it may inspire a hope, and yet it may fail to 
confer an operative endowment. Iam not sur- 
prised, therefore, to find that the apostle goes on 
to record the gift of an endowment which is as 
Verse 3sure as the word of the promise. “ His Divine 
power hath granted unto us all things that pertain 
unto lifeand godliness.” In the Lord the believer 
has not only promise, but equipment. “All 
things that pertain to life!” The life that now 


CHAPTER J. 14 223 


is! Whatever is requisite for a splendid life we 
may assuredly findin our Lord. It is not needful 
to have a strong body, but it is essential to have 
a fine judgment, and this we may find in the 
Lord. ‘The meek will He guide in judgment.” 
‘“‘T will counsel thee with Mine eye upon thee.” 
“He that followeth Me shall not walk in dark- 
ness, but shall be the light of life.” It is not 
needful to have a heavy purse, but it is essential 
to have a sweet temper, and this we may find in 
the Lord. A harsh and ugly temper is not only 
destructive to one’s own peace, and mars one’s 
own work, but it works havoc upon the peace 
and ministry of others. “ Love suffereth long”; 
it isa fine, chaste, gracious temper, one of the 
commanding things that pertain to life and 
godliness. It is not needful to have a great 
following, but it is essential to have a com- 
panionable conscience, and this we may find in 
the Lord. A man has got a splendid travelling 
companion when he is on good terms with his 
own conscience. And aman is weak, miserably 
weak, even with the support of a multitude, if 
his own conscience is ranked among his foes. 
“A good conscience” is one of the things that 
pertain to life, and we may find in the bank 
‘“‘a conscience void of offence.” “The things 
that pertain unto life” are not the things that 
are commonly named; and “the things that per- 


224 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


tain unto life and godliness” are still more rarely 
found upon the lips of men. “The things that 
pertain unto life and godliness” are such things 
as I have named—a good judgment, a sweet 
temper, a companionable conscience, and above 
all, and as the root of all, the gift of faith, the 
gift of love, the fruits of forgiveness, the grand 
sense of reconciliation with God, which form the 
glorious inheritance of every man in Jesus 
Christ our Lord. And all this we may take out 
of the bank, “exceeding great and precious 
promises,” filling one’s life with a vast ideal and 
with a fervent ambition and with an ardent 
hope; and “all things that pertain unto life and 
godliness,” everything that is needful for the 
attainment of moral and spiritual strength and 
perfectness. E 
And so we have looked at our wealth in 
the bank, the power and virtue and glory of 
the Lord. And we have looked at what we 
can draw out of the bank—“ exceeding great 
and precious promises”; “all things that pertain 
unto life and godliness.” And what is to be 
the end of it all? What is our possible 
Verse 4destiny? “That throwgh these ye may become 
partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped 
from the corruption that is im the world by lust.” 
So the ministry of the wealth is to effect a 
deliverance and a glorious adoption! We are 


CHAPTER I. 14 225 


to escape one thing and find refuge in another. 
Here is our deliverance, “having escaped the 
corruption that is in the world.” Alas! we can 
be in no doubt as to the presence of corruption. 
It is everywhere about us; in this corruption 
men and women are everywhere enslaved. The 
enslavement has various guises. Dante, in the 
Divina Commedia, tells us that when he turned 
from the desert plain to scale the shining mount 
he encountered three beasts. And first 

A leopard, supple, lithe, exceeding fleet, 

Whose skin full many a dusky spot did stain. 
He found a leopard in the way, a beast which 
typified the love of sensual beauty, and in 
this beastliness many souls are enslaved. And 
then he met a lion 


Who seemed as if upon him he would leap, 
With head upraised and hunger fierce and wild. 


In the lion he typified the pride of strength, the 
vanity of perilous independence. And in this 
servitude how many souls are enslaved? And 
then he met a she-wolf— 

A she-wolf with all greed defiled, 

Laden with hungry leanness terrible, 

That many nations had their peace beguiled. 
And the she-wolf typified the spirit of greed, 
the imprisoning bondage in which many souls 
are enslaved. These three beasts are ever 


226 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


found in the way of the man who would leave 
the level plain and take the shining slope. He 
will meet the leopard and the lion and the 
wolf. But in Christ we have the means of 
deliverance. We can pass the beasts in safety, 
and “escape the corruption that is in the 
world through lust.” And with the deliverance 
there comes the glory of adoption. From the 
company of beasts we are translated into the 
fellowship and family of God. We “become 
partakers of the Divine nature.” We draw 
upon the power of the Lord, the virtue of the 
Lord, the glory of the Lord! More and more 
does the beauty of the Lord rest upon us and 
within us. We become ever more finely en- 
dowed with the unsearchable riches of Christ. 
“We are transformed into the same image 
from glory to glory.” 


DILIGENCE IN THE SPIRIT 


2 PETER i. 5-9 


Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all 
diligence, in your faith supply virtue ; and in your virtue 
knowledge; and in your knowledge temperance; and in 
your temperance patience ; and in your patience godliness ; 
and tn your godliness love of the brethren; and in your 
love of the brethren love. For if these things are yours and 
abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto 
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he that 
lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having 
forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. 


Iy our previous meditation we were considering 
the vast resources which are the inheritance 
of every believer in Christ Jesus. We gazed 
upon our bullion in the bank. We reverently 
contemplated the “exceeding great and precious 
promises,” and we bowed in awe before the 
overwhelming ministry of God’s redeeming 
grace. And now what shall we do with these 
stupendous resources? We must not allow the 
Divine wealth to soothe us into slumberous 
and perilous impotence. If the Lord makes 
us to “lie down in green pastures,” it is only 


that by the gracious renewal we might be 
227 


228 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


enabled to walk in “the paths of righteousness 
Verse 5 for His name’s sake.” Therefore “for this very 
cause add on your part all diligence.” It is a 
demand for business vigilance in the realm of 
the spirit. We are not to close our eyes and 
allow our hmbs to hang limp, in the ex- 
pectancy that the Lord will carry us like blind 
logs. He made us of clay, but he formed us 
men, and as men He purposes that we shall 
live and move and have our being. And so 
He calls for “diligence.” It is a word which 
elsewhere is translated haste, carefulness, busi- 
ness. It is very wonderful how commonly the 
New Testament takes its similes from the com- 
mercial world. ‘‘ Trade ye herewith till I come.” 
“Took therefore carefully how ye walk, buying 
up the opportunity.” ‘The kingdom of heaven 
is like unto amerchantman,” In all these varied 
passages there is a common emphasis upon the 
necessity of businesslike qualities in our spiritual 
life. We are called upon to manifest the same 
earnestness, the same intensity, the same 
strenuousness in the realm of spiritual enter- 
prise as we do in the search for daily bread. 
And yet how frequent and glaring is the 
contrast between a man’s religious life and his 
life in the office or upon the exchange. His 
life seems to be lived in separate compartments ; 
the one is suggestive of laxity and a waiting 


CHAPTER I. 5-9 229 


upon happy luck; the other is characterised 
by a fiery ardour and keen sagacity. There 
is method in the office; there is disorder in 
the closet. But here, I say, is a demand that 
men should be as businesslike in winning 
holiness as in seeking material wealth. We 
must bring method into our religion. We must 
find out the best means of kindling the spirit 
of praise, and of engaging in quick and cease- 
less communion with God, and then we must 
steadily adhere to these as a business man 
adheres to well-tested systems in commercial 
life. We must bring alertness into our religion; 
we must watch with all the keenness of an 
open-eyed speculator, and we must be intent 
upon “buying up every opportunity for the 
Lord.” We must bring promptness into our 
religion. When some fervent impulse is glow- 
ing in our spirits we must not play with the 
treasured moment; “we must strike while the 
iron is hot.” “Now is the accepted time, now 
is the day of salvation.” We must bring bold- 
mess into our religion. Timid men make no 
fine ventures. In the realm of religion it is 
he who ventures most who acquires most. Our 
weakness lies in our timidity. Great worlds 
are waiting for us if only we have the courage 
to go inand possess them. “ Why are ye fearful, 
O ye of little faith?” And we must bring 


230 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


persistence into our religion. We must not sit 
down and wail some doleful complaint because 
the seed sown in the morning did not bring the 
harvest at night. We must not encourage a 
spirit of pessimism because our difficulties appear 
insuperable. We must go steadily on and wear 
down every resistance in the grace-fed ex- 
pectancy that we shall assuredly win if we faint 
not. Such are the characteristics of common 
diligence which we are to bring into co-operative 
fellowship with the forces of grace. “Seest 
thou a man diligent in his business? He shall 
stand before kings; he shall not stand before 
mean men.” 

Assuming, then, that these business qualities 
and aptitudes are being brought into the 
ministry of the Spirit, we must now address 
ourselves to the expansion of our spiritual traffic, 
to the enrichment of our souls, and the enlarge- 

Verses 5-7 ment of our spiritual stock. “In your faith 
supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge ; and 
in your knowledge temperance; and im your 
temperance patience; and in your patience godli- 
ness; and in your godliness love of the brethren; 
and in your love of the brethren love.” It is surely 
the addition of ever new departments to the 
wealthy interests of the soul! But let us mark 
that the endeavour after enlargement must have 
precise and distinctive aim. It is one of the 


CHAPTER I. 5-9 231 


perils of the religious life that we so frequently 
lose ourselves in vague and pointless generalities. 
Our confessions of sin have no pertinence, and 
our aspirations after holiness have no shining 
peaks. We must define our ambitions, and let 
them glow before us as distinct and radiant 
goals. It was a wise old monk who wrote, “ We 
must always have some fixed purpose, and 
especially against those sins which do most of 
all hinder us.” The principle is equally effective 
and applicable in the pursuit of virtue. What 
do I lack? Let me examine myself. It will 
probably be found that the things which most 
displease me in others are just the things which 
most characterise myself. Am I impatient? 
Let me supply it. DoT lack self-control? Let 
me supply it. Is my love of the brethren 
wanting inrange? Let me supply it. But can 
we supply these additions at will? Ah, but the 
writer of this Epistle is not beginning with 
ethical counsel. He began by taking us round 
the bank and showing us the mighty resources 
on which we can draw. And then, after the 
contemplation of our wealth, he assumes that we 
are taking possession of it by faith, and that 
in the strength of that faith we are translating 
our strength into holy attamment in common 
life. It is a will that is rooted in God, and from 
God is drawing the strength it needs, which is 


232 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


engaged in this active ministry of adding to 
its moral and spiritual treasures. And a will 
so set can attain unto anything, and can become 
clothed in the superlative beauties of the likeness 
of Christ. 
But here, now, is a vital principle; every 
added virtue strengthens and transfigures every 
other virtue. Every addition to character affects 
the colour of the entire character. In Ruskin’s 
great work of Modern Painters, he devotes one 
chapter to what he calls ‘The Law of Help.” 
And here is the paragraph in which he defines 
the law: “In true composition, everything else 
not only helps everything else a little, but 
helps it with its utmost power. Every atom is 
full of energy. Not a line, not aspeck of colour, 
but is doing its very best, and that best is aid.” 
It is even so in the composition of character. 
Every addition I make to my character adds 
to the general enrichment. The principle has 
its reverse application. To withdraw a single 
grace is to impoverish every element in the 
religious life. ‘ For whosoever shall keep the 
whole law, and yet stumble in one point, is 
become guilty of all.” We cannot poison the 
blood in one limb without endangering the 
entire circulation. But it is the positive 
application of the principle with which we are 
now concerned. And the graces are a co- 


CHAPTER I. 5-9 233 


operative brotherhood, they are interpervasive, 
and each one lends energy and colour to the 
whole. We cannot possibly supply a new grace 
to the life without bringing wealth to all our 
previous acquirements. For instance, here is 
“godliness.” Godliness by itself may be very 
regular, and at the same time very icy and very 
cold. It is like a room without a fire. But now 
“in your godliness supply love.” And what 
a difference a fire always makes to a well- 
furnished room! Love brings the fire into the 
cold chamber, and godliness becomes a genial 
thing with a new glow upon it, and a new 
geniality at its heart. But the love thus 
supplied not only enriches godliness, but every 
other grace as well. What a tenderness it 
gives to patience, and what a soft beauty 
it brings to self-control! Take love away 
from the circle of the graces, and they are 
like a varied landscape when the sun is hid 
behind the clouds. “In your faith supply .. . 
love.” And so on, with never-ceasing additions, 
for ever enriching the entire life of the soul. 
Men who bring such business-like qualities 
into the sphere of their religion, and who are 
continually enriching their spiritual stock, make 
a lasting contribution to the common weal. 
“ For if these things are yours and abound, they Verse 8 
make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the 


234 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Such lives 
are “not idle,” they are active; they are not 
“unfruitful,” they are efficient. Surely one 
could not find two words more descriptive of 
a worthy and positive life; it is active and 
efficient. It is active and efficient on the side 
of reception, the whole life being gloriously 
open to the incoming of the Divine; it is active 
and efficient in the ministry of impartation, 
communicating itself in rich currency to the 
interests and affairs of the world. We become 
the best and the most active and the most 
efficient citizens when we contribute to the 
common life the gift of sweet and perfected 
dispositions. A poor but sanctified life is a 
magnificent civic asset! Who can compute 
the value to a community of a character en- 
riched by patience, by self-control, by brotherly 
kindness, and by love? Such characters are 
moral health centres; they bring ozone into 
the crowded thoroughfares of common life. 
That is the true efficiency, as indeed that is 
the true success, which makes an enduring 
contribution to the common wealth. Such 
things can never die. 

What then? If we are businesslike, con- 
tinually adding to our spiritual stock, and 
thereby contributing to the common weal, what 
will be the issue? The apostle expresses the 


CHAPTER I. 5-9 235 


issue in negation. ‘ He that lacketh these things Verse 9 
as blind.” Then if a man possess these things 
he is consequently endowed with sight. Every 
supplied grace enlarges the. spiritual vision. 
Every refinement of the disposition is the 
acquirement of an extra lens. And now I 
think of it, my text is like a vast drawn-out 
telescope, with lens after lens added, ever con- 
tributing to the intensity and extension of its 
range. See how it runs: “Add virtue, and 
knowledge, and temperance, and patience, and 
godliness, and love of the brethren, and love!” 
What seeing power a man will gain with a 
telescope like this! But lacking these things 
IT should only see things that are near, and 
there will be no distant alluring vision, and 
every thought will be of the immediate day. 
Lacking “these things,” bread is bread alone; 
let these things be added, and our daily bread 
becomes a sacrament through which we see 
the very beauty of the Christ. Without “these 
things,” affliction becomes a dark and a heavy 
deposit ; let “these things,” be added, and we 
can see its issue in “‘a far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory.” Drop “these things,” 
and life becomes a thing of purely transient 
import, a jostle and a squabble for a slice of 
bread. Let “these things” be added, and life 
becomes endowed with eternal significance, and 


236 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


every little duty becomes an open gate into 
the infinite world. And so the apostle con- 
cludes his exhortation by re-emphasising his 
Verse10 kindly and urgent counsel. ““ Wherefore, 
brethren, give the more diligence.” Let every atom 
of energy be devoted to your holy cause. 
Never let your prayers be scrimped and nig- 
gardly! Do not enter into life maimed, and so 
escape corruption by the skin of your teeth! 
Seek to win life,and to win it well, “for thus 
shall be richly supplied unto you an entrance 
into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ.” 


THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE 
MEMORY 


2 PETER i. 12-15 


Wherefore I shall be ready always to put you in re- 
membrance of these things, though ye know them, and are 
established in the truth which ts with you. And I think 
it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up 
by putting you in remembrance ; knowing that the putting 
off of my tabernacle cometh swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus 
Christ signified unto me. Yea, I will give diligence that 
at every time ye may be able after my decease to call these 
things to remembrance. 


“7 shall be ready always to put you in remem- Verse 1% 
brance of these things. And what things are 
these? We have seen how the earlier counsels 
of this great chapter are disposed. It is as 
though we had first a description of rare and 
fertile soil, and then a catalogue of the mar- 
vellously bountiful fruits which can be grown 
init. Or to change our figure, it is as though 
the earlier verses are descriptive of every man’s 
banking account, and the later verses point out 
the possible issues of vigilant and aggressive 
enterprise. The whole passage begins in the 
237 


238 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


general endowment of grace and peace, and it 
finishes in the glorious possibility of an abun- 
dant entrance “into the eternal kingdom of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 

“JT shall be ready always to put you in 
remembrance of these things.” It is vital that 
we remember this connection between soil and 
fruits, between capital and labour. It is all- 
important that we hold the apostolic teaching 
that the Christian gospel is not a theory to be 
defended, but an inheritance to be explored 
and enjoyed. The Christian is not first an 
apologist, or even an evangelist, but an experi- 
mentalist, dealing personally with the proffered 
grace and power of his Lord. At every 
moment the Christian is both passive and 
active, passively receiving the redemptive 
power of grace, and actively working it out 
in rich and perfected character. He is both 
suppliant and ambassador; he communes with 
God, he intercedes with man. He is not 
separately a man of the cloisters or a man of 
the street; he is both in one. He keeps in 
touch with the tremendous background of grace 
in order that he may fill his foreground with 
the fruits of grace in Christian life and duty. 
He brings the infinite into the trifle, and he 
knows that without the powers of eternal 
salvation he cannot redeem the passing day. 


CHAPTER I. 12-15 239 


In a word the Christian takes knowledge of his 
resources and does not dare to seek to live 
his life without them. He remembers “these 
things.” 

But is it not a strange thing that we should 
ever be inclined to forget them? We should 
surely assume that whatever other things we 
might be inclined to forget we should always 
remember that we are spiritual millionaires. 
Is it possible that in doing the little business 
of life we can ever forget our buried capital 
in the Lord, the treasure laid up for us in 
heaven, and seek to win spiritual success 
without it? Yes, all this is a grave possibility, 
and therefore the apostle ardently labours to 
keep our remembrance alert. Memory is such 
a child of caprice, even in purely human 
matters! The memory is in the habit of 
playing curious pranks. We can remember 
people’s faces, but we forget their names. 
We remember a story, but we forget its date. 
We can repeat all the marriage relationships 
of the royal house, but we forget the steps of 
even a short argument. We can recall the 
unessential, and we forget the fundamental. 
“Memory is a capricious witch; she husbands 
bits of straw and rag, and throws her jewels 
out of the window.” And certainly in higher 
relationships our memory gives us no better 


240 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


service. We remember a single injury and 
we forget a multitude of gracious benefits. We 
remember material experiences and incidents, 
but we forget the things which most profoundly 
concern our peace. There is therefore surely 
great need for the strenuous word of the 
apostle. And it is as urgent upon us as upon 
the men and women of his own day that we 
vigorously set about to exercise and sanctify 
the powers of our remembrance. 

Now, what can we say about it? Let us 
begin here. The intensity of our remembrance 
very largely depends upon the depth of the 
original impressions. Some incidents bite deep 
into the mind, like acid into metal; they are not 
printed, but graven; not written, but burned. 
Other impressions are like the writing upon 
the steamed window-panes of a railway carriage ; 
let the outside atmosphere get a little warmer 
and they pass away in an hour. Now the 
depth of the impression is determined by the 
vividness of the vision. If our gaze is cursory 
the impression will be transient. How does all — 
this bear upon our remembrance in the spirit ? 
It has this most crucial bearing ; our impressions 
are fleeting because we do not give sufficient 
time to receive them. The vision does not 
bite! What can a man know of the country 
of Uganda by careering through it in a railway 


CHAPTER I. 12-15 241 


train? What can a man know of the wealth 
and glory of our National Gallery if he takes 
the chambers at a gallop? If he is to retaina 
lasting and a vivid remembrance he must sit 
down before one of the masterpieces, and allow 
himself to steep in the contemplation of its 
glory. It is quite impossible to take a snapshot 
of the interior of a cathedral. If the exquisite 
tracery, and even the dim outlines of the 
structure, are to be captured, it will be done as 
the issue of a long exposure. And so it is with 
the vastness of our inheritance in Christ. Our 
visions come from long exposures; we have 
got to sit down reverently and gaze upon the 
glory of the Lord in prolonged contemplation. 
We sometimes sing, “ There is life for a look 
at the Crucified One!” That is scarcely true if 
by look we mean a transient glance, a passing 
nod, a momentary turning of the eyes. “There 
is life for a gaze,” and that life is continuous 
only so long as the gaze is retained. If we only 
glance upon the Master we shall forget the 
impression at the next turning of the way; the 
enemy will come, and will snatch away that 
which was sown in our hearts. The strength 
of our memory depends upon the depth of our 
impressions. 

It is equally true that the intensity of the 
remembrance also depends upon the studied 


242 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


preservation of the impressions. There are 
forces ever about us that minister to erasion 
and oblivion. I noticed the other day that the 
workmen were engaged upon a very conspicuous 
monument in London, deepening the inscriptive 
letters which told the heroic story. The cor- 
rosives of time had been at work upon the once 
deep impressions, and they were being gradually 
effaced. And so it is with the lines in our 
memory; time is hostile to their retention, and 
is ever at work seeking their effacement. And 
so the impressions need to be periodically 
deepened and revived. Have we any ministries 
for effecting this purpose? Yes, I think we 
have many. A place can do it. If you go back 
to the little village where you spent your early 
days, how the old life comes back to you as you 
tread the accustomed ways and turn the familiar 
corners! How the sight of an old well can 
recall an experience, and even a drop upon the 
bucket can revive feelings which carry you back 
to your youth. And a place can sometimes 
refresh and deepen a spiritual impression. I 
wonder if Simon Peter ever went back to the 
court of the High Priest’s palace! I warrant 
he never passed near the door without the 
fountain of tears being unsealed, and the stream 
of penitential feelings flowing anew. There 
was a little place in a garden to which Thomas 


CHAPTER I. 12-15 243 


Boston used to repair whenever he wanted to 
quicken his early love for the Lord. It was 
his spiritual birthplace, and the very place 
seemed to abound in the ministry of regenera- 
tion. It weuld be an amazingly fruitful thing 
if some of my readers, whose spiritual fervour 
is growing cool, and whose early conception of 
the Lord is becoming faint, would spare a day 
to go to the place where first they knew the 
Lord, and I warrant that the sacred spot would 
re-deepen the lines of their early covenant, and 
they would find themselves revived. It would 
be a great day in many a man’s life if he would 
go back to the little village church, and sit for 
one Sunday in the seat which he occupied when 
there broke upon his wonderings eyes the 
vision of the glory of his Lord. For a place 
can renew the lines of our remembrances. 

And a thing can do it. An apparently com- 
monplace thing can recall a conspicuous history. 
I have known the scent of a flower unveil a day 
which seemed to have been buried in permanent 
obscurity. I never get the fragrance of the 
common dog-rose without my memory leaping 
back to-an old-fashioned garden in the North, 
and peopling that garden with presences now 
gone, and awaking experiences which are preg- 
nant with inspiration and peace. But the 
principle has higher applications still. A piece 


244 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


of broken bread can recall the broken body of 
the Lord, and a cup of wine can become the 
sacramental minister of the blood of the Lamb. 
Can we afford to forget these helpmeets of 
grace ? Even the superlative verities of our 
faith sometimes grow dim to our eyes, and we 
temporarily lose our hold upon them. Let us 
make use of every means appointed by the 
Lord, if perchance our memory may be revived 
and these fruitful sanctities may be retained. 
When I survey the wondrous Cross 
On which the Prince of Glory died, 
My richest gain I count but loss, 
And pour contempt on all my pride. 

An incident can do it. How frequently it 
happens that the hands busy themselves in 
doing a thing which has not been done for 
many years, and the little action draws the 
curtain back from our youth. I played a little 
game the other day which I had not played 
since boyhood, and in very literal feeling I 
was a boy again, and all the past environ- 
ments round about my feet. And it is even 
so with activity of a higher kind. That bit of 
Christian work you dropped, and the dropping 
of which has brought such a heavy penalty of 
spiritual degeneracy and recoil! Take it up 
again! Your Lord’s grace was very real to 
youthen! Take it up again, and you will find 


CHAPTER I. 12-15 245 


that in that God-blessed work your remembrance 
is revived, the effaced impressions have deepened 
again, and you have the old inspired vision of 
the glory of the Lord. Go to it again, I say, 
and your soul shall be restored. In all these 
ways, by a diligent determination to give our- 
selves time to receive our spiritual impressions, 
and by cherishing all the ministries by which 
the impressions can be preserved, it is possible 
to sanctify our memories and to make them 
temples of the living God. 

But in our text the apostle puts himself 
forward as a helpmeet of other men’s remem- 
brances. “ I shall be ready always to put you in Verse 12 
remembrance of these things.” It is a gracious 
prerogative that we can minister to one another 
in holy things. It is possible for one man to 
rouse another man’s memory to the recollection 
of the things of the Spirit, and to revive his sense 
of the superlative grace and goodness of God. 
But this ministry of remembrancer is one that 
requires the utmost delicacy if its exercise is 
to be hallowed and fruitful. The phrase in my 
text, “to put you in remembrance,” literally 
signifies to remind quietly, to mention it under 
one’s breath, to gently suggest it! There are 
two ways of performing the function of re- 
membrancer. We can approach our brother 
like an alarm bell, or we can bear upon him 


~ 


246 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


like a genial breathing. We can rouse some 
people quite easily by drawing up the blinds 
and letting in the light. There is no occasion 
for the rattle of artillery; it is quite enough 
to let the sunshine in. And there are some 
men who seem to be spiritually slumberous who 
do not require some angry indictment, but only 
a gentle hint of spiritual resource. Here is a 
man who is down; his troubles have multiplied 
on every hand; and in the depth of the de- 
pression he has forgotten everything but the 
calamity itself. Now here is an opportunity for 
the Lord’s remembrancer! But how unwise it 
would be to come with all the clatter of a fire- 
engine, and the accompaniment of a clanging, 
rousing bell. The only effective approach would 
be one of exquisite delicacy. We must approach 
the man as a nurse would touch a patient who is 
full of sores, and in tones of the softest com- 
passion we must remind him that he is a 
millionaire, and that he has untold capital in 
the bank of the Lord. But, oh, the tact of it! 
See that fine touch in the apostle’s ministry: 
“T shall be ready always to put you in remem- 
Verse 12 brance . . . though ye know them.” How delicate 
the courtesy! “I have nothing new to tell you, 
but you and I have both got the Lord, haven’t 
we?” Isay the delicacy of it; it was the very 
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. “It shall be 


CHAPTER I. 12-15 247 


given you in that same hour what ye shall 
speak.” 

And this ministry of remembrancer is one that 
must not be delayed. The man’s memory is 
getting numb. His early spiritual impressions 
are being effaced. The glory of the Lord is 
waning. The distant heaven is growing dim. 
Let not the remembrancer wait; let him set 
about his Christlike work in the assurance that 
the, King’s business requireth haste. “I think 
it right . . . knowing that the putting off of my Mis 
tabernacle Sonal swiftly.” The remembrancer *” * 
himself is only here for a time: he has but a 
day at the most: let him be up and about! 
The night cometh! But how beautiful the 
apostle’s conception of the coming night! Life 
is a pilgrimage in tents, and to-morrow he will 
pull up the tent-pegs and depart to “the city 
that hath foundations.” But meanwhile he 
must be active, deepening the lines in the 
memory of his fellow-disciples. “Yea, I will give Verse 15 
diligence that at every time ye may be able after 
my decease to call these things to remembrance.” 

He will do something to ensure the continuance 
of his ministry, even when he has gone home. 
“ After my decease!” After my exodus! When 
he has left his Egypt and found his Canaan, the 
far-off land across the Jordan, the ministry of 
remembrancer shall be maintained. I think that 


248 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


every time they recalled the apostle, when he had 
gone home, the very memory would act as a 
restorative of their own spiritual experiences, 
and the depth of their early devotion would 
be regained.. 

Let us reverently and diligently see to the 
sanctification of our memories. Let us periodi- 
cally inspect our impressions. Let us watch if 
we are in any way forgetful of our spiritual 
inheritance. Are we remembering our capital ? 
Do we look lke millionaires, or are we like 
beggars whose memories have utterly lost the 
significance of their grand estate? Lord, help 
us to remember what we ought never to forget! 


THE TRANSFIGURED JESUS 


2 PETER i. 16-18 


For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we 
made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For 
He received from God the Father honour and glory, when 
there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, 
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: and 
this voice we ourselves heard come out of heaven, when we 
were with Him in the holy mount. 


“ We were eyewitnesses of His majesty” —eyewit- Verse 16 
nesses of the mystic glory in which the Lord 
was arrayed, and by which He was possessed 
upon the Mount of Transfiguration. The passage 
has reference to the superlative splendour which 
shone about the Lord upon what we call the 
“Mount of Transfiguration.” “ We were eye- 
witnesses of His majesty.” When I had written 
that phrase upon my paper I looked up at my 
study walls, and I caught sight of Munkacsy’s 
great picture of “ Christ before Pilate,” and the 
contrast between the mount of glory, when the 
majesty of the Lord was witnessed by the 


apostles, and the shame and the ignominy of 
249 


250 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


the judgment hall, was to me positively startling. 
“We were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” I 
looked at the picture, and there was Pilate, 
bullet-headed, with short-cropped hair, with 
lustreless eyes, with effeminate mouth, and a 
most irresolute chin—Pilate, clothed in the 
garment of a little brief authority, disposing of 
the Maker of the world. And then the crowd ! 
Fierce men with clenched fists in an attitude of 
threatening ; faces made repulsive by passion; 
Pharisees in long, tasselled garments, yelling 
“Crucify Him, crucify Him!” other Pharisees 
bowing before the Lord in profound but mock 
obeisance; other Pharisees, with curling lips of 
scorn and contempt, lookmg on with sheer 
disdain; two or three women, with babes in 
their arms, gazing with the fascination of terror ; 
one woman fainting, supported by a man who 
has the only gentle face in the crowd; and 
there, hiding in the very thick of the fierce 
mob, Judas Iscariot, with a face all alert with 
fear, and eyes in which there is already visible 
the flame of remorse; and added to all this a 
ring of impassive Roman soldiers, and one or 
two wondering little children, and a stray, 
terrified dog! And before all this mass of 
yelling and blood-seeking fanatics there stands 
the Lord! Upon His exposed breast there are 
the weals of the scourge. The plait of thorns 


CHAPTER I. 16-18 251 


is crushed down upon His brow; His hands are 
manacled ; they bear the reed, the mock symbol 
of sovereignty; His face is perfectly white, 
wearied, sorrow-stricken, and yet there is an 
upward look, as though His eyes were piercing 
the gloom. Yes, I say, I looked at that when 
I read Peter’s words, ‘We were eyewitnesses 
of His majesty”; and I say the contrast was 
perfectly startling, for there seemed to be little 
radiance or glory as He stood there, bound and 
helpless, the victim of the tyrannous crowd. 
But, in reality, is the radiance of the transfigura- 
tion in any way dimmed by the ignominy and 
the tragedy of the later days? Has the glory 
which shone upon the mount been in any way 
eclipsed by what is now taking place before 
Pilate? By no means. In Pilate’s judgment- 
hall the glory and majesty of the Lord had not 
departed ; and it came to me, and I knew it as 
I gazed upon the picture in my study, that 
somehow that picture of the tragedy had to 
help me to explain the Transfiguration. ' The 
Transfiguration upon the Mount finds its ex- 
planation in the Passion. 

What preceded the journey up the mount? 
What had taken place before the disciples and 
the Lord took their journey away to the mount? 
Can we get at their mind? If I may use a 
somewhat common phrase to-day, what was 


252 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


their “ psychological mood”? What was their 
mental content when they began to climb the 
hill? What had been the last emphasis of the 
Master’s teaching? Had they any fear? Had 
they any special hope? How had they begun 
to climb the mount with Jesus? What were 
the last things in His private expositions which 
probably filled their minds? Happily fo: you 
and for me the matter is made perfectly clear. 
The very last thing we are told about our Lord’s 
converse with His disciples is this: a little while 
before, and for the first time, the shadow of the 
Lord’s death was flung upon their sunlit and 
prosperous way. ‘From that time ”—this was 
only just before the climb began—- From that 
time began Jesus to shew unto His disciples 
how that He must go unto Jerusalem and suffer 
many things of the elders and chief priests and 
scribes, and be killed.” I want you to think of 
that as suddenly entering into the programme. 
It had never been whispered before, and now, 
when the way was becoming more and more 
sunny, and the crowds becoming more and more 
loyal and multiplied, when the day was just 
dawning, and the Lord’s kingdom just appearing, 
He begins to talk about His own suffering and 
death. I do not wonder that the announcement 
from the Master’s lips startled and staggered 
and paralysed them. Why, the teaching 


CHAPTER I. 16-18 253 


darkened the whole prospect! “That shall 
never be unto Thee, Lord,’ cried the ardent 
and impulsive Peter. “Get thee behind 
Me!” TI think there is no preacher who 
can say that word in the Master’s tones, “ Get 
thee behind Me!<’ It was not said in savage 
severity, but in the pleadings of love. He felt 
the allurement of the disciple’s words, “That 
shall never be unto Thee, Lord!” “Don’t, 
don’t, My beloved friend! Tempt Me not away 
from the gloom; thy friendship is seeking the 
victory of the evil one.” And then He gathered 
them round about Him and began to expound 
unto them the law of life. ‘“ Whosoever will 
take thy way, Peter, whosoever will save his 
life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life 
shall find it.” He began to expound unto them 
the law of life through death, fulness through 
sacrifice. If we would live we must die; if we 
would find ourselves we must give ourselves 
away. He began to say unto them that He 
would suffer and be killed! And then He laid 
down for them the great condition of fellow- 
ship: “If any man would come after Me, let 
him deny himself, and take up his cross and 
follow Me.” 

Well now, that is the mental furniture, that 
is the psychological mood which possessed the 
disciples as they turned to climb the slopes of 


254 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


the mount. They were under the shadow! To 
them had just been made a suggestion of the 
coming death of their King. They had had 
teaching about crosses, and losses, and sacrifice ; 
and yet, through it all, a wonderful promise 
woven of ultimate victory. We must go back 
to that word about the cross, and self-denial, 
and the law of life; and when we climb 
the mount of transfiguration we must take it 
as a key to the glory, and to all that awaits 
us there. : 

“ And then,” we are told, “‘ Jesus taketh with 
him Peter,” with his mind filled with these 
things, ‘‘and James,” and his mind filled with 
these things, “and John.” “Jesus taketh!” 
That word “taketh” is an exceedingly feeble 
and unsuggestive English word. The word that 
lies behind it is full of pregnant significance. It 
is precisely the same word which, in the Epistle 
to the Hebrews, is translated “ offered.” “He 
taketh with him.” It is not an ordinary journey. 
It is the solemn beginning of a walk which is 
to end at an altar, and that an altar of sacrifice. 
“He taketh with Him Peter, and James and 
John,” and they begin the solemn walk leading 
them up to the great surrender, the place of 
glorious sacrifice. ‘He taketh them into a high 
mountain, apart,” and this too, in the evening 
time. Let us pause there fora moment. There 


CHAPTER I. 16-18 255 


is always something so solemnising about the 
evening. 


Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 
And all the air a solemn stillness holds. 


Somehow in the gathering twilight God seems to 
come very near. And thigexperience receives em- 
phasis when it is evening time upon the heights, 
when the clouds are coming back like tired 
vagrants to rest awhile upon the summits; when 
there is nobody near, and nobody can be heard, 
except, perhaps, some belated shepherd, gather- 
ing his flock together for the night. He led them 
unto a mountain apart, ‘and He prayed.” Let 
us get the scene well fixed in our imaginations. 
The Master is away up in the mountain; the 
heavy dews are lying upon the grass: that 
breeze is softly blowing, the breeze which seems 
to be always moving upon the lower slopes of 
Hermon, perhaps cooled by the snows beyond. 
And there He kneels, the Master, the Lord, and 
He prays! I want us to realise that all prayer is 
more than speech with God. Prayer is infinitely 
more than pleading. I sometimes wish—I say 
it with the utmost deliberateness—I sometimes 
wish we could drop the word “plead” quite 
out of our religious vocabulary. We so fre- 
quently pray as though we had got an indifferent 
and unwilling God with whom we have to plead, 


256 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


The cardinal necessity in prayer is not pleading 
but receiving. I do not believe—I say it with 
a full sense of responsibility—I do not believe 
we have any more need to plead with God to 
bless than to plead with the air outside to come 
into a building. It is notso much pleading that 
is required as the makmg of an inlet. God is 
willing. Prayer is simply communion; the 
opening up of channels of companionship; the 
opening out of mind, the opening out of will, 
in order that into the open mind and will and 
conscience there may flow the Divine energy 
and the Divine grace. “Jesus prayed,” and I 
know that when it is said “Jesus prayed,” it 
means that He was absolutely open to the 
infinite. Surely that is the meaning of prayer. 
When a man prays, if he prays aright, he is 
simply opening himself out to the incoming of 
God. God says: “Behold! I stand at the door 
and knock; I enshrine and surround you like 
the atmosphere.” Prayer is conscious receptive- 
ness in the presence of the Divine. Jesus, upon 
the mountain height, in the evening time prayed, 
He opened Himself to God, the Infinite, and the 
Infinite began to possess Him. 

“And as He prayed He was transfigured.” I 
am not surprised at that. Even among men we 
have seen the ministry of transfiguration, even 
though it be in infinitely smaller degree. You 


CHAPTER I. 16-18 257 


remember that Moses had been so opened. out 
to God, and so possessed by the Divine light, 
that when he came down from the mount his 
face shone with mystic radiance. We are told 
concerning Stephen that he was so opened out 
to the Infinite that they saw his face as it had 
been the face of an angel. He was simply 
possessed and pervaded by the Divine power. 
And surely one may say, as I can say, that in 
far humbler life than that of Moses, in life in 
which there has been little of what the world 
calls “culture,” little of mental furniture, little 
of dialectical power, but in which there has been 
great spiritual receptiveness, in the lives of the 
illiterate there has shone “a light that never 
was on sea or land.’”’ But here with the Master, 
whose life was absolutely and uninterruptedly 
opened out to the glory of the God-head, the 
inflow of glory transfigured and transformed 
Him, and in superlative and supreme degree 
“His face did shine as the sun.” The very 
expression of His countenance was altered. And 
then the historians go even further, for we are 
told that the glory, the energy, I scarcely know 
how to describe it—one uses an almost violent 
phrase in seeking to give expression to it—the 
Divine effluence which flowed into the Lord not 
only transfigured His flesh, but in some mystic 
way transfigured even His outer vesture. “ His 


958 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


garments became white as snow.” All of which 
just means this: that this man of Nazareth 
became so absolutely filled with God that His 
very material vesture was transfigured and 
transformed. ‘We were eyewitnesses of it.” 
Now, I would like to pause there a moment, 
to offer an opinion for which I cannot quote 
Scriptural authority. “This say I, not the 
Lord.” I would venture to ask: What would 
have happened if man had never sinned? I 
think, just what happened on the mount. I have 
a conviction that this experience on the mount 
was just the purposed consummation for every 
life. I have a conviction that if there had 
been no sin you and I would never have known 
an open grave. We should have known a 
transformation, a transfiguration; there would 
have been a consummation in which the 
material would have been transfigured and 
trazsformed through the importation of the 
Divine glory. The corruptible would have put 
on incorruption, but not through the ministry 
of decay and death; just by the ministry of 
an inflow of Divine glory. I think that was 
our purposed end, and our purposed glory. I 
think that from the very day of our birth our 
road would have led ever forward and ever 
forward into light. There would have come 
a@ certain moment in the temporal life of 


CHAPTER I. 16-18 259 


everybody when the glory of the Lord would 
have absolutely possessed us, when the material 
shrine would have been transfigured, and we 
should have reached the higher plane of the 
immortal life. But sin came, and that con- 
summation could never be. Instead of on some 
quiet evening just being transfigured into the 
immortal, we have now to take the way to 
the shades, the way of the grave. But Jesus 
never sinned, and therefore I think that upon 
the mount His life was naturally consummated, 
and He could have entered into the permanent 
glory which then possessed Him. 

But now, mark you, I say that our Master, 
with a perfectly holy life, came there-to a 
natural consummation, in which His life was 
transfigured, and He might, I think, then 
have passed into the state of enduring glory. 
But He divests Himself of the glory, lays 
it aside, turns His back, as it were, upon 
the natural consummation, and takes the way 
to the grave. He tutns from the appointed 
way of glory, the glory of sinlessness, and He 
takes the way appointed of sin. That is what 
I call the great renunciation; and I sometimes 
think that instead of calling it the Mount of 
Transfiguration we might call it the Mount 
of Renunciation. He would not claim the 
natural consummation. He would not claim 


260 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


the transfiguration. He takes up the cross 
even upon the mount; He takes the way of 
His brethren in sin; He came to do it; He 
leaves the glory, and He comes down the mount 
that by coming down the mount He might 
make for you and for me a new and living 
way by which we, too, can reach the con- 
summation. ‘See, He lays His glory by!” He 
turns His face towards the grave. 

Do you think there were no fears in His 
renunciation? I very frequently wish that we 
did not so divest our Lord of all attributes 
common to the flesh. Do you think our Master 
was altogether delivered from the common fears 
of man in the prospect of death? No fear of 
death, and that a death of such absolute 
abandonment, and of so unspeakable and un- 
thinkable isolation? I think when He turned 
His back upon that glory, glory to which He 
had a right, and faced towards the grave, He 
felt a chill, the chill of a nameless fear. I know 
that on another mountam, when the devil came 
and tempted Him, and He then turned His 
back upon the offered sovereignty, ‘angels 
came and ministered unto Him.” And I do 
not wonder that now, when, upon the mount 
of another renunciation, He turns His back 
upon the glory and contemplates death, there 
appeared unto Him two other ministers—Moses 


CHAPTER I. 16-18 261 


and Elijah: Moses who died no one knew how, 
and was buried no one knew where; and Elijah, 
who was transfigured that he should not see 
death. And then we are told in just one phrase, 
which although it does not satisfy, yet relieves 
our wonder, that they spoke together of the 
decease that He should accomplish at Jerusalem. 
Perhaps it is permitted us to indulge in a little 
reverent imagination? Here is the Lord turning 
His back upon glory and facing the chills of 
death, and there appears to Him from the other 
side of death Moses and Elijah, and surely 
their conversation about His decease would be 
heartening! It would be feeding speech, and 
sustaining speech, by which He would be able 
all the more boldly and all the more fearlessly 
to take His journey into twilight and night. 
And so, I say, our Saviour began His descent 
from glory to grave. It is not the going up 
the mount that.cheers me, it is the coming 
down! Every step He took in that descent 
gives confirmation to your hope and to mine. 
Our ascent becomes possible in His descent. 
And as He turned to go, and laid His shining : 

glory by, behold! a voice, ‘This is My beloved Verse 17 
Son.” It was a great renunciation on Chrict’s 
part, but it was a great gift on God’s part, and 
T think that on the mount of renunciation, when 
our Lord begins His descent, and the Father 


962 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


says, ‘‘My beloved Son,” we can in all rever- 
ence and truth add the other great word: “God 
so loved the world that He let Him lay His 
glory by”; “God so loved the world that 
He gave His only begotten Son.” Down the 
mount He comes, on to Golgotha and the grave! 
Did not I say that the Transfiguration finds its 
explanation at the Passion? When I see Him 
coming down the mount, I can say with Paul, 
“He loved me and gave Himself for me.” It 
is through our Lord’s renunciation of glory that 
we become glorified. When I turn my face to 
the mountain-height, where the Apostle Peter 
was an eyewitness of the majesty of God, and 
when I think that that glory was the purposed 
consummation for every life, that I, if I had 
never sinned, might have been similarly trans- 
figured into the immortal state, I wonder how 
the blest estate can be regained. And here is 
the answer : 


There is a way for man to rise 
To that sublime abode: 

An offering and a sacrifice, 

A Holy Spirit’s energies, 
An advocate with God. 


These, these prepare us for the sight 
Of holiness above ; 

The sons of ignorance and night 

May dwell in the eternal Light 
Through the eternal Love! 


THE MYSTERY OF THE PROPHET 


2 PETER i. 19-21 


And we have the word of prophecy made more sure; 
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp 
shining in a squalid place, until the day dawn, and the 
day-star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no 
prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. For no 
prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake 
from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost. 

Tue prophet, his prophecy, how to understand 
it! This passage is about as compact and con- 
centrated as a crystal. It is compressed and 
solidified thinking, every sentence being as 
essential and as unwasteful as a passage of 
Browning. Just cast a glance at the crowded 
contents. I say it enshrines a description of the 
true prophet, it unveils the nature and signifi- 
cance of true prophecy, and it defines the only 
methods by which the secrets of prophecy can 
be disentangled and understood. Here is the 
vignette of the prophet: ‘ Vo prophecy ever came Verse 21 
by the will of man: but men spake from God, being 
moved by the Holy Ghost.’ And here is the out- 
line, the primary feature of prophetic ministry: 
263 


264 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


Verse 19“ A lamp shining in a squalid place, until the day 
dawn, and the day-star arise im your hearts.” 
And here is the clue to sound and effective 

bees interpretation of prophecy: “No prophecy... 

"4s of private interpretation, for... men spake 

from God.” These great guiding lines have not 
become confused by the march of time; they are 
as true and significant to-day as on the day 
when they were first penned, and if we would 
know a modern prophet when he appears, and 
be able to understand his message when we 
hear it, we shall do well to pay close and 
reverent heed to the teaching of this glorious 
and inspired companion of our Lord. 

Well, now, I think it is quite as well at once, 
when we are speaking about prophets and 
prophecy, that we detach ourselves almost 
entirely from the modern and popular interpre- 
tation of the word. Prophecy is not synonymous 
with prediction. When we use the sentence 
which has almost become a proverbial phrase 
in our ordinary speech and say, “I am neither 
a prophet nor the son of a prophet,” we are 
employing the words almost entirely in the 
sense of forecast, in the meaning of prevision, 
with the significance of unbosoming the secrets 
of the morrow. The element of prevision and 
of forecast is not entirely absent from the true 
equipment of the prophet, but it is not the 


CHAPTER I. 19-21 265 


primary element. Ido not think any one can 
declare principles without forecasting issues ; 
but the burden of a true prophet is not the fore- 
casting of an event, but the proclamation of a 
principle. True prophecy is declaration, not 
anticipation; it is vision, not prevision. A 
prophet isa man who foretells, but who primarily 
forthtells, tells forth a message which God has 
given to him. The prophet is a forthteller of 
great truths, of dominant principles; he is a re- 
vealer of the great broad highways along which 
all the affairs of men move to inevitable destiny. 
I want, then, at once to put that primary meaning 
which we use in our modern interpretation of 
the word on one side, and as far as possible to 
leave aside this secondary element of prevision. 
With this introductory assumption, look at the 
picture of the prophet himself. ‘ No prophecy Verse 21 
ever came by the will of man.” Some things may 
come by human volition, but never prophecy. 
No man can will himself into the prophetic 
office. If he is not born there, his presence is an 
impertinent usurpation. The prophet is not the 
product of self-will, not the product of self- 
initiative. He is not the matured flower of 
human culture. The prophet’s own will has little 
or no part in his mission or vocation. He is 
not a cause, he is an effect. He is not the wind, 
he is an instrument, He is not the sun, he is 


266 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


a reflector. The prophet is born, not made. 
No prophecy and no prophet ever came by the 
will of man. The prophet’s réle is not the 
perquisite of resolute purpose, or the prize of 
any strenuous ambition. He does not come by 
culture, but by nature. He is not made by 
struggle, he comes by birth. There is about 
the prophet an element which can never be 
manufactured. JI think we know this deep, 
unnatural, unearthly, uncreated element in 
other spheres whenever a prophet appears. We 
can make rhymesters; we can easily manufac- 
ture them by the score. You can lay down a 
number of precise little rules for the making of 
a versifier; you can tell him how to measure 
out his little lines, how to regulate his metre, 
how to appoimt his jingle. You can make 
a rhymester, but no poetry ever came by the 
will of man. When you are reading Wordsworth, 
you can instinctively feel when the manufac- 
ture begins, you can instinctively feel when 
the will of the poet begins to work, and you. 
can instinctively feel when the manufacture 
ceases and something mysterious arrives, and 
the poet begins to sing. You can make 
politicians, make them by the crowd. Give a 
man a little programme, a glib tongue, a strong 
tincture of party loyalty, and there you are! 
But statesmanship never came by the will of 


CHAPTER I. 19-21 267 


man. We know the distinction between the 
political party-hack in all our political parties, 
and the man who tells forth the fundamentals, 
who speaks not in the mere party tone, but 
in the abiding speech of the ages. We can 
manufacture a politician ; a statesman is beyond 
us. We can manufacture pianolas, we can 
make admirable imitations of the human fingers; 
we can endow the hammers with something of 
the living touch of the finger-tips, we can create 
a most elaborate and exquisite mechanism; but 
when we have finished our work we experience 
some nameless chill in the absence of mysterious 
life. No musician ever came by the will of 
man. We have to await his coming, and when 
he comes we know him by the unearthliness of 
his gifts, and the strains that breathe of another 
and a mysterious clime. And so I say we are 
conscious of this unmistakable element when- 
ever the prophet appears, in whatsoever guise 
he comes. “Deep calleth unto deep”; there is 
about him a suggestion of the infinite, and we 
cannot explain him. We may not-like him. It 
is quite probable we shall set about and crucify 
him. But there is in the prophet an element 
of mysteriousness which, though he be of our 
flesh and blood, lnks him with beings of 
quite another plane. We may not be able 
to define his distinction, but we feel it; and 


268 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


in these high matters of refined sentiment, 
feeling is perhaps our safest guide. Who 
does not feel the difference between Cecil 
Rhodes and Garibaldi? It is the unearthly 
element to which we pay our homage and our 
regard. Who does not feel the difference 
between John Bright and Benjamin Disraeli? 
What isit? Itis the element that never came 
by the will of man. It is the difference between 
a spring and a cistern; it is the difference 
between glitter and glow; it is a difference 
unspeakable, made by the profound and mystic 
forthtelling from, the Infinite. It is even so in 
every prophet, no matter what may be the 
garb he wears. It is so in Rudyard Kipling. 
I think his poetry is often feverish; to me, at 
any rate, it is often declamatory, sometimes 
inflammatory, often thoughtless. But again 
and again on the heedless page a wind springs 
up, and everything quickens, and the man is 
clothed in nameless inspiration, and the mortal 
puts on immortality. I say we feel it. “The 
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest 
the sound thereof,” and it makes one man a 
statesman and leaves another a politician; it 
makes one man a poet, and leaves another a 
rhymester; it makes one man a prophet, and 
leaves another a mere speaker. “The wind 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest 


CHAPTER I. 19-21 269 


the sound thereof,” but thou canst not tell 
whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth.” ‘No 
prophet ever came by the will of man.” We 
cannot make them. What then? What sug- 
gestion does the apostle give us in my text as 
to how this indefinable and mysterious element 
can be explained? Here is the apostolic ex- 
planation: “ Men spake from God, being moved Verse 21 
by the Holy Ghost.” I like that word “moved.” 
It is one of the picturesque words of the New 
Testament Scriptures. It is precisely the same 
word which is translated in the Acts of the 
Apostles “drive.” You remember in that 
graphic chapter which describes the shipwreck 
of the apostle, there comes this very suggestive 
phrase: “ And when the ship was caught... 
we let her drive.” That is precisely the word 
which is here translated “moved.” ‘Men spake 
from God, being moved,” driven by the Holy 
Ghost as Paul’s ship was driven by the wind. 
That is the apostolic explanation of the prophet. 
“ Suddenly there came a rushing mighty wind,” 
and they spake! It was so with Moses, it was 
so with Elijah and Micah and Amos. They 
were all wind-swept children of God, driven 
by mysterious currents which they could never 
explain. That is why prophets can never 
understand the genesis of their own mission 
and their own message—they seem to have 


270 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


had nothing to do with it: Why Thackeray, 
who was sometimes endowed with the prophetic 
calling, speaking about his highest work, those 
parts of his work which bore the signs of 
inspiration, uses these very strange words, “I 
have no idea where it all comes from; I am 
often astounded myself to read it after I have 
got it down on the paper.” I remember a 
great preacher telling me that he often felt just 
in that way about some of his sermons. When 
he had preached them, or when he had prepared 
them, he read them over again with curious 
and devouring interest, and could not think 
they were his own. He had been moved by 
the Holy Ghost, and he watched with great 
inquisitiveness the discoveries revealed to him. 
Verse 21 ‘‘ Jen spake from God.” And that word “ from”! 
It is in these prepositions that we so lack in 
trying to carry out the vividness of the original. 
It means right out of God, right out of the very 
depths of the Deity! “Men spake out of God!” 
Their speech was born in God, God-driven, 
God-controlled. That is so ever and every- 
where, from the prophet of the earliest times 
to the last prophet who speaks to the listening 
ears of our own day. “The voice of the great 
Eternal speaks in their mighty tone.” “No 
prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men 
spake from God, being moved bythe Holy Ghost.” 


CHAPTER I. 19-21 271 


So much for the prophet. Now I turn from 
the prophet to the prophecy; and what, accord- 
ing to my text, is the abiding characteristic of 
all true prophecy? Here is the guiding word: 
It is “as a lamp shining in a squalid place, Verse 13 
until the day dawn, and the day-star arise im 
your hearts.” “As a lamp!” Then prophecy 
is something luminous, and therefore something 
illuminating. “A lamp shining in a squalid 
place.” True prophecy always exposes the 
squalor of its time. When the prophet speaks, 
something shady stands revealed, something 
iniquitous stands exposed. The prophet always 
brings with him a light brighter than the 
twilight of accepted compromise. He comes 
with something of the light eternal; he is a 
lamp, and in the presence of the shining prophet 
the sins of his time come into visibility, and 
are named and declared. This is what we 
should expect. If we turn to the book of the 
psalmist we find these expressive words: “Our 
secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.” 
We come into the light of the Lord’s presence, 
and our secret sins leap into view, just as motes 
are seen in the sunbeam, and just as faded 
patches and rents are exposed in the broad 
light of the fuller day. And if a man comes 
from God, bearing with him something of this 
same eternal light, if he comes as a lamp, we 


272 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


must expect that the squalor and the deformity 
of his day will become visible before him. 
That is ever true, true of the far-off prophet 
Elijah. If you want to see the sin and the 
perversity and the squalor of that far-off day, 
stand near the man who has got the lamp. It 
is the same with the prophet Amos. If you 
want to see the rottenness of the gilded cere- 
monial religion of his day, and the injustices, 
and the perverted relationships of man to man, 
stand near the herdsman who has got the lamp. 
It is true of John the Baptist. If you want 
to see the sin of the times in which our Lord 
was born, stand near the man who has got the 
lamp. If you stand near Savonarola, you see 
the iniquities of Florence. If you stand near 
Thomas Carlyle, you behold the hollow shams 
and conventions of our own day. If you stand 
near General Booth, you will see the miseries 
and the deformities and the crookednesses of 
the submerged tenth. Until General Booth 
appeared we had never really seen them. 
“Darkest England and the way out.” “The 
people who sat in darkness saw a great light.” 
That is ever characteristic of prophecy. It 
reveals the squalor in the squalid place, it 
unveils it for the purpose of removing it. It 
reveals the darkness and corruption of the city 
by bringing into view a vision of the New 


CHAPTER I. 19-21 273 


Jerusalem, the city come down out of heaven 
from God. The first characteristic of true 
prophecy is that it is luminous and illuminating, 
exposing where exposure is needed. Mark the 
progress and sequence of my text. “A lamp 
shining in a squalid place, wntil the day dawn!” Verse 18 
Prophecy is not only luminous, it is progressive. 
Do you mark the increasing expansion of the 
terms? I think it is very beautiful and sug- 
gestive to notice it: ‘‘A lamp,” ‘‘a day-star!” 
The dawning! and on to perfect noon! The 
prophet of to-day speaks a larger word than 
the prophet of the earliest time. Savonarola 
was a child of the dawning; Amos was a child 
of the lamp. It is always necessary to remem- 
ber this. When I remember this, it clears away 
a thousand difficulties from the sacred page. 
When I go back to Elijah, or to Amos, or to 
Micah, I must not expect the large and com- 
prehensive light of the dawn. I must expect 
lamplight, partial light, local light; but a lamp 
always shining above the current standard of 
the time. When you go back to Elijah you go 
from dawn to lamps, and the principle must 
guide you in your apprehension and apprecia- 
tion of the prophet’s teaching. I do not know 
that the electric light need speak altogether 
in such contemptuous terms of the horn lamp, 
and I do not know why the horn lamp should 


274 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


so fiercely and vehemently disparage the rush. 
The crucial criterion is this: Not whether 
Elijah equals Paul, and not whether Amos 
equals Thomas Carlyle. The crucial criterion 
is this: When Elijah held his lamp, what 
about the squalor? Was he above the current 
standard? Did he shine above the accepted 
compromise? Did he bring in the radiance of 
the ideal? When I go back to Amos I do not 
expect to see dawnlight, but lamplight. I find 
in Hosea, in Amos, many things I do not like; 
but I am a child of a richer privilege, a child 
of a larger day. The question is this: Had 
they a lamp which exposed the dirt? Did 
they bring out the squalor, and did they make 
revelations of which even we, in our own day, 
do well to take heed? The light has been 
progressive: a lamp for Elijah, a day-star for 
another man, the broader light of the dawning 
for another. And still the light of prophecy is 
progressive. We, too, are only yet in the early 
dawning; we are far away yet from the perfect 
noon. The prophet of to-day and to-morrow 
has still richer and deeper things to tell us from 
God. He need not be a repetition of yester- 
day, he need not be a repeater of old saws 
and counsels, carrying precisely the same lamp. 
Still, to-day as ever, our prophet speaks from 
God, and in the utterance of these more 


CHAPTER I. 19-21 275 


privileged times we ought to behold a bright- 
ness far more radiant than the current standard, 
far more exacting in its demands—an inspira- 
tion leading us nearer to that glorious consum- 
mation when we shall know even as we are 
known. 

And lastly, how shall we receive a prophet 
and understand his message when he comes ? 
Here is the guiding word: “No prophecy of Verse 2¢ 
Scripture is of private interpretation.” We are 
not at liberty to take our own roads to the 
interpretation. Private ways of that sort will 
never lead to the truth. There is a prescribed 
highway by which the deep secrets of prophets 
can be gained. A just interpretation of pro- 
phecy will always depend upon the spirit in 
which we approach it. Thomas 4 Kempis 
has a very revealing word in, I believe, the 
very first chapter of that wonderfully helpful 
book The Imitation of Christ. “ By what spirit 
any scripture was made, by that same spirit 
must it be interpreted.” If you want to inter- 
pret a prophecy aright you must get into the 
spirit in which it was born. You cannot take 
a private way. Only in that way, the way in 
which it had its birth, can you get its secret 
meaning. I think that is true of literature in 
general. I was reading only the other day 
a book by one of the ablest literary critics 


276 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


of the last fifty years, and he said he never 
understood the drive, and spring, and leap of 
Sir Walter Scott's Marmion until he declaimed 
it aloud on a galloping horse. But why did 
the secret of Marmion come out when it was 
declaimed on the back of a galloping horse? 
Because it was composed on the back of a gallop- 
inghorse. Andif you will turn to Marmion with 
. this conception of the leap, and spring, and gallop 
in your mind and heart, you will get the very 
go and drive and rhythm of the poem. That 
will suffice for our purpose. We are to re- 
arrange the conditions under which poetry was 
born if we are to discern and interpret its 
meaning. And so it is with all prophecy and 
all poetry, and all music. What is the use 
of bringing a commercial instinct to the inter- 
pretation of Wordsworth? What could you 
do with it? If you want to understand 
Wordsworth, you must become identified with 
the man, you must become possessed by the 
Wordsworthian mood. How, then, shall I find 
the secret of Isaiah, of Paul, of Savonarola, or 
of Luther? Not by any private interpretation, 
but by that same spirit in which their message 
and prophecy were born. Is not this the word 
of the Master? “He that receiveth a prophet 
in the spirit of a prophet shall receive a ipro- 
phet’s reward.” He that receiveth Wordsworth 


CHAPTER I. 19-21 277 


in the spirit of Wordsworth, will enter into 
Wordsworth’s work. He that receiveth Paul 
in the spirit of Paul will walk in the highways 
and byways of Paul’s inheritance. It is no use 
my going to Paul or to Isaiah with mere imple- 
ments of criticism, however delicate or however 
refined they may be I shall fail to discover 
the secrets of his intimacy; I shall be locked 
out from his innermost fellowship. We must 
come to these men with reverence, with 
humility, with sincerity of purpose, with that 
absolute frankness which offers a sensitive sur- 
face to all good things. To sum it all up, the 
Holy Spirit must mterpret what the Holy Spirit 
first inspired, and it would be far better to 
have no critical apparatus at all, and to know 
nothing about scholarship and nothing about 
learning, and to come to the sacred page with 
the shoes from off the feet, than to go burdened 
with all manner of learning and scholarship, 
and tramp loudly and flippantly in the most 
sacred place. You cannot get into secrets by 
private and heedless ways of that kind. It 
will have to be done in the broad highway of 
God’s Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit. 
And what we need we can get. And if ye, 
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
unto your children, how much more shall your 
Father give the holy, interpreting Spirit to 


278 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


them that ask it? And so you see we can all 
be interpreters, and, blessed be God, we can 
all be prophets too! For if we are all filled 
with the Holy Spirit there will come into our 
message the prophetic significance, into our 
very singing the prophetic fervour, into our 
ordinary intercourse and converse spiritual 
energy and pith. The Holy Spirit will speak 
through me. 
Oh, teach me, Lord, that I may teach 
The precious things Thou dost impart ; 


And wing my words that they may reach 
The hidden depths of many a heart. 

Oh, fill me with Thy fulness, Lord, 
Until my very heart o’erflow 

With kindling thought and glowing word 
Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show. 


DESTRUCTIVE HERESIES 


2 PETER ii. 1 


But there arose false prophets also among the people, as 
among you also there shall be false teachers, who shall 
privily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master 
that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 


Tuts is a dark and appalling chapter. There is 
nothing quite like it elsewhere in the entire 
book. The misery and desolation of it are 
unrelieved. It is so lke some wide and 
soddened moor, in a night of cold and drizzling 
rain, made lurid now and again by lightning- 
flash and weird with the growl of rolling 
thunder. Everywhere is the black and 
treacherous bog. The moral pollution is over- 
whelming. I confess that I have stood before 
it for months, in the hope of seeing my way 
across, and even now I am by no means con- 
fident of a sure-footed exposition. The gutter 
conditions are ubiquitous. The descriptive 
language is intense, violent, terrific. There is 
no softening of the shade from end to end. It 


begins in the denunciation of “lascivious 
279 


280 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


doings’’; it continues through “pits of dark- 
ness,” “lawless deeds,” “lust of defilement,” - 
“spots and blemishes,” “children of cursing ”; 
and it ends in the gruesome figure of “the dog 
turning to his own vomit and the sow that had 
washed to wallowing in the mire.” It is an 
awful chapter, borrowing its symbolism from 
“springs without water,’ and from “mists 
driven by a storm,” and recalling the ashes of 
“Sodom and Gomorrah” to enforce the urgency 
and terror of its judgment. 

Is there any road across this dark and 
swampy moor? Has the bog a secret? . To 
drop my figure, has this wide-spreading pollu- 
tion an explanation? Amid all the cold mystery 
and darkness of the chapter, one thing becomes 
increasingly clear as we gaze upon it, that the 
depraved life is the creation of perverse 
thought, that in “ destructive heresies” is to be 
found the explanation of this immoral conduct. 
I say this is one of the clear and primary 
emphases of the apostle’s teaching. A man’s 
thought determines the moral climate of his life, 
and will settle the question whether his conduct 
is to be poisonous marsh or fertile meadow, 
fragrant garden or barren sand. The pose of 
the mind determines the dispositions, and will 
settle whether a man shall soar with angels in 
the heavenlies or wallow with the sow in the 


CHAPTER I. 1 281 


mire. What we think about the things that 
are greatest will determine how we do the 
things that are least. What are your primary 
thoughts about God? The prints of those 
thoughts will be found in your courtesies, in 
your intercourse, in the common relationships 
of life, in the government of commerce, in the 
control of the body, and in all the affairs of 
home and market and field. All the corruption 
of this chapter is traced up to unworthy con- 
ceptions of Christ, to the partial, if not entire, 
dethronement of “the Lord of life and glory.” 
The immorality has its explanation in “de- 
structive heresy.” 

“What think ye of Christ?” In what was 
their thought defective? What was the essence 
of the heresy? The secret is here, they had no 
adequate sense of His holiness. All true and 
efficient thinking about God begins in the con- 
ception of His holiness. If you begin with His 
love, you deoxygenate the very affection you 
proclaim. If you begin with His mercy, you 
deprive it of the very salt which makes it a 
minister of healing and defence. If you begin 
with His condescension, it is a condescension 
emasculated, because you have not gazed upon 
His lofty and sublime abode. You cannot get a 
glimpse of the unspeakable humility of Calvary 
until your eyes are filled with the glory of the 


282 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


great white throne. If you would know the 
depth you must begin with the height! Our 
thinking concerning the Lord must not take its 
rise in His compassions or His love. We must 
begin with the pure white ray. We must begin 
with the great white throne! When the man 
Isaiah was refashioned for the prophetic life, 
it was not some softened glimpse of a wistful 
family circle in glory which absorbed his gaze. 
It was the vision of a throne, ‘“ high and lifted 
up.” And those who stood about the throne 
were not moving in light and familiar liberty. 
“Hach one had six wings; with twain he covered 
his face, and with twain he covered his feet.” 
How solemn, and how reverent, and how wor- 
shipful! And the voices which he heard were 
not the jaunty songs and liltings which are 
sung at the fireside. “And one cried unto 
another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord 
of hosts.” It was in circumstances like these, 
and upon heights like these, that the prophet’s 
thinking began! Do not think that grave and 
venerable experiences of this kind make life 
severe and hard and rob it of its juice and 
freedom. There is no man who has more to 
say about the throne and the awful splendours 
that gather about it, no man who tells us more 
about the thunders and lightnings that proceed 
out of it, than just the apostle who has given 


CHAPTER II. 1 283 


us the most exquisitely tender letter in the New 
Testament Scriptures. John Calvin is a name 
that has become almost synonymous with hard- 
ness, unbendableness, severity, with high and 
austere contemplation, but you do the man a 
grave injustice and you miss the interpretative 
secret of his life if you ignore or overlook the 
wells of most delicate compassion in which his 
life and writings abound. Our softest water is 
the water that flows over granitic beds. If you 
would know what it made of Isaiah, read through 
his message and examine his life. The rivers of 
tenderness and compassion which flow in this 
book are not anywhere to be surpassed except by 
“the river of water of life” which “ flows from 
the throne of God and of the Lamb.” When 
you have read the sixth chapter of Isaiah, when 
you have tremblingly gazed upon the throne, 
“high and lifted up,” when you have looked 
upon the veiled and stooping seraphim, and 
when you have listened to the solemn sound 
of holy voices “chanting by the crystal sea,” 
then turn to the fortieth chapter, and hear the 
sound of running waters, the rivers of com- 
passion—‘‘ Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, 
saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably to 
Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare 
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. 
. . » He shall feed His flock like a shepherd!” 


284 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


The soft compassion of the fortieth chapter 
finds its explanation in the solemn severities 
of the sixth. I stood by a Swiss chalet, on the 
lower slopes of a lovely vale, and by the house ~ 
there flowed a gladsome river, full and forceful, 
laughing and dancing in its liberty, and in- 
stinctively I prayed that my life might be as 
the river, full of power and full of song, clearing 
obstacles with a nimble leap, and hastening on 
to the great and eternal sea. And to my voice- 
less prayer there came reply, “ Follow up the 
stream to its birth!” And Itracked the buoyant 
river, and I reached the snow-line, and I found 
that in the spreading wastes of virgin-snow the 
singing minister had its birth. And then I knew 
that full and forceful Christian lives must have 
their source in sovereign holiness, that only 
above the snow-line, near the great white 
throne, could they find an adequate birth. 
“Hast thou forsaken the snows of Lebanon?” 
That is the “ destructive heresy,” to begin one’s 
thinking and one’s doing otherwhere than in 
the holiness of God. To begin elsewhere is to 
be sure of impoverishment, and to have a life- 
river which will lose itself in unwholesome 
swamp and bog, and become the parent of moral 
corruption and contagion. ‘Holy, holy, holy, 
is the Lord of hosts.” 

But let me still further analyse this “ de- 


CHAPTER II. 1 285 


structive heresy.” If we do not begin with the 
Lord’s holiness, we can have no discernment of 
the Lord’s atonement. Dwell below the snow- 
line, and you want no atonement! And for 
this reason. The man who does not begin his 
thinking in divine holiness will have no keen 
and poignant perception of human sin. What 
you see in a thing depends very much upon 
its background. John Ruskin has shown us 
how the whitest notepaper, exposed before 
the tribunal of bright sunshine, reveals its in- 
herent grey. It all depends upon the back- 
ground. If your background be gas-light, your 
notepaper will appear superlatively white ; but 
if the background be the all-revealing flame of 
God’s resplendent sun, the apparent white will 
darken into grey. I have seen a sea-gull in 
flight, with a black cloud for a background, and 
the bird seemed white as driven snow; I have 
seen the same bird upon the water, with a back- 
ground of snowy foam, and the wings were 
grey. Yes, what is your background? If you 
do not begin with the holiness of God you will 
never see the blackness of sin. If your back- 
ground be some indifferent human standard, 
some halting expediency, some easy policy, 
human life, and your own included, will appear 
passably clear. I think I am no pessimist, but 
I confess I look with some alarm at what I 


286 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


cannot but regard as the lessening sense of 
sin which seems to hold our modern thought 
and life. One’s fears are difficult to express 
because the dark symptoms themselves are so 
difficult to disengage and define. But I feel 
a certain dulness, a certain drowsiness, in the 
spiritual life. I feel a certain close, enerva- 
ting mugginess in the moral atmosphere; a want 
of alertness, of sharp and sensitive response. 
Our modern Churches are too indolently con- 
tented, too prematurely satisfied, and are much 
too willing to take easy advantage of the com- 
promises offered of the world. We must become 
suspicious of an indulgent terminology. A 
violent antagonist of the Christian faith, a man 
whose method of attack is of the slap-dash 
kind, declared, only a few days ago, “ There is 
no such thing as sin; there is only error.’ The 
man who begins with that diagnosis can never 
prescribe for me. But we must see to it that 
we do not take advantage of this indulgent 
term, and the Christian pulpit must proclaim 
the holiness of the Lord, and allow no web of 
wordy sophistry to hide the great white throne! 
We have frequently been told that we need to 
recover the word “ grace”; we need first to re- 
cover the word “ holiness”; holiness will recover 
the word sin. And if sin does not appear sin, 
but passes muster as imperfect virtue, wherein 


CHAPTER IL. 1 287 


comes the need of atonement? No holiness, no 
sin ; no sin, no Saviour! Redemption is a super- 
fluity, and the ministry of Jesus is a wasteful 
toil, and His passion is a fruitless death. The 
man who has no vision of holiness has no per- 
ception of the Atonement, and he “denies the 
Lord that bought him.” It is the man who has 
ascended above the snow-line, who will wail in 
his secret soul, “‘ Woe is me, for I am unclean,” 
and who will smite upon his breast, saying, 
“God be merciful to me a sinner!” 

Well, now, see the consequence of these 
things. I have been trying to expound the 
“destructive heresy” which I think is the 
initial cause of the pollution which is so terribly 
unfolded in this chapter. If these cardinal 
conceptions are dull or eclipsed, other precious 
things will be destroyed. Cast your eyes over 
this widespread corruption. There are some 
“conspicuous absences.” There are many 
missing treasures, whose absence accounts for 
the filth. I miss the imstinct of reverence! 
They tremble not “to rail at dignities.” It is 
an ill thing im a life when a man has no 
sovereignty before which he bows in reverent 
awe. Take out the august, and life is reduced 
to flippancy, and levity is the master of the 
feast both day and night. A man who never 
reveres will find it impossible to be true. The 


288 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


man who never kneels in spirit can scarcely be 
upright in life. To bow to nothing is to be 
master of nothing. If we have no sense of 
the august to worship, we shall have little sense 
of sin to expel. 

I know that in using this word “august” I 
am using and borrowing a characteristic ex- 
pression of my great predecessor Dr. Dale, 
and I hope I am using it with something of 
his own reach and loftiness of thought. 
I do not know anything which is more 
needed in our Free Church life and worship 
than an awed and reverent consciousness 
of God. I could wish that we moved about 
our very sanctuaries with a softer step, and 
that our very demeanour was that of men who 
are held in a subdued wonder at the majestic 
presence of God. I sometimes think that our 
very detachment from any prescribed order of 
service, our boundless freedom, our farhiliarity 
with the Lord, our easy intimacy in communion, 
need to be guarded from besetting perils. Even 
when we rejoice in the Gospel of Calvary let 
us “give thanks at the remembrance of 
His holiness.” 


Before Jehovah’s awful throne 
Ye nations bow with sacred joy. 


I do not think we are in danger of “railing 
at dignities,” but I do think we are in danger of 


CHAPTER I. 1 289 


forgetting the supreme dignity of them. In 
one of his letters to Matthew Mowat, Samuel 
Rutherford uses these words: “Ye should give 
[God] all His own court-styles, His high and 
heaven-names.” I think we are a little lacking 
in the court-style, in this use of the high and 
heaven-names. But the use of the high names 
will come back when our souls are humbly 
gazing upon the high things. When we shall 
see Him as John the Evangelist saw Him, we, 
too, ‘shall fall at His feet as one dead.” Our 
souls will always have the stoop of reverent 
adoration while we keep in view the vision 
of the holiness of our Lord. In all this 
revelling, sweltering chapter I miss the sense 
of sin. 

And amid all the movements I miss another 
treasure, the sense of a large and noble free- 
dom. I know there is a talk of freedom, but 
freedom is not enjoyed. “Promising them 
liberty,” and the poor fools are deluded into 
the thought that they are in possession of 
it. I know they are “doing just as they 
like,” but of all forrss of bondage that is the 
worst; for this great world, and the laws 
of its government, are not built upon the 
“likes” of men, but upon the rights and 
prerogatives of God. How can a man be free, 
even though the song of freedom be ever on 


19 


290 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


his lips, if all the powers in grace and nature 
are pledged to overthrow him? I tell you 
every flower of the field is ranked against 
defilement, and all the forces of this wonderful 
planet are arrayed against the man whose 
only arbiter is his own “likes,” instead of 
being determined by the arbitrament of the 
will and purpose of God. A man who is in 
sin, and assumes he is in liberty, and is satisfied 
with his position, has not risen to the con- 
tentment and liberty which are the glory of 
humankind, but is sunk to the animal bondage 
of the sow, which gloats and wallows in the 
mire. 

There are other missing treasures which I 
might name, but I will content myself in 
mentioning only one—the absence of any 
perception of the drift and purpose of history. 
When the great things go out of life, when 
the sublime is exiled, when reverence dies and 
the days decline in triviality, men lose their 
sense of history, and yesterday has no voice. 
“And I heard a voice behind me, saying!” 
That is the voice of yesterday, and it is the 
privilege of those who are in the fellowship of 
God to know its interpretation. Sodom and 
Gomorrah shout through the centuries, and so 
do Nineveh and Babylon, and Greece and 
Rome! “If God spared not the ancient world, 


CHAPTER II. 1 291 


but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher 
of righteousness, when He brought a flood 
upon the ungodly”; and if God turned “the 
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. .. .” 
—that is the voice of history, the shoutings of 
experience, and by the people in this chapter 
the voice is unheeded because unheard. All 
these “conspicuous absences”—the instinct of 
reverence, the feeling of sin, the sense of a 
noble freedom, and the recognition of historical 
witness—are accounted for by perverse thinking, 
by “destructive heresies,’ by the degradation 
of the Godhead, by the eclipse of the great 
white throne. Havimg no sense of holiness, 
they “denied the Lord that bought them.” 
The lack of lofty summit explains the corrupt 
and stagnant plain. 

Now this particular species of heresy may 
not be prevalent to-day. I do not know that 
we could find its precise lineaments in our own 
time. But we may give the teaching wide 
dominion. Our primary conception of the 
Lord will determine the trend and quality of 
our own life, and the depth or shallowness 
of its ministry. Whatever dethrones or dis- 
parages Christ will impair and impoverish man. 
Anything that cheapens the Saviour will make 
us worthless. Any teaching which puts Him 
out of account, which removes Him from the 


292 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


front place, which relegates Him to the rear, 
which in any way “denies” Him, is a “ de- 
structive heresy,” and is fraught with peril and 
destruction. Is there any modern peril ? 

There is a prevalent teaching to-day which 
is usually known as the “ New Thought.” I do 
not speak as its antagonist, but as one who 
wishes to preserve it from becoming a minister 
of weakness and destruction. I welcome much 
of its teaching. I believe that in discover- 
ing and clarifying psychological laws it may 
render unspeakable help to the living of a 
Christian life. I believe that we are now 
standing upon the borderland of a marvellous 
country, and that mystic forces are to be 
revealed to us of which hitherto we have only 
dimly dreamed. I believe that the marvellous 
phenomena of telepathy and hypnotism, and all 
the discoveries we are making in this dim and 
impalpable world, may mightily help us in the 
fortification of pure and resolute habit. But I 
see a danger, an ominous danger, a danger real 
and immediate. I know the literature of this 
new teaching, the literature both of this country 
and of the United States; I speak from first- 
hand knowledge, and I say that the teaching 
gives no adequate place and sovereignty to 
Jesus Christ our Lord. He is of little or no 
account; He is occasionally mentioned, but only 


CHAPTER II. 1 293 


as one of a crowd, and He is not accorded that 
unique and solitary pre-eminence which He 
claims. In one of the latest, and in some 
respects the ablest, of these books I have looked 
in vain from end to end for even the bare 
mention of the Saviour’s name. He does not 
count! He is a negligible and_ therefore 
neglected factor, and is left entirely out of the 
reckoning. And because He is absent, other 
things are missing. I find no mention of 
guilt. Rarely do I stumble upon the fact of 
sin. In the ‘New Thought” there is no con- 
fession of sin, no sob of penitence, no plea for 
forgiveness, no leaning upon mercy. The atone- 
ment is an obsolete device, the pardonable 
expedient of a primitive day. ‘A man must 
acquire the art,” says one of the best of these 
teachers, ‘the art of allowing the past, with 
whatever errors, sins, faults, follies, or ignorances 
entangled, to slip out of sight.” How easy the 
suggestion, how tremendous the achievement! 
For the most of us that burden slips away only 
where the pilgrim’s burden rolled away, at 
the foot of the Saviour’s cross, where it rolls 
into the Saviour’s grave. I care not what 
veins of helpful ministry these men and women 
may strike, if they ignore the Saviour and 
the ministry of redeeming grace, they are 
dealing with essentially surface forces as com- 


294 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


pared with the mighty powers born of personal 
communion with Him. It is a teaching which 
practically “denies the Lord that bought us,” 
and so far it is a “destructive heresy” which 
offers no adequate ministry for the liberation 
of sinful men, and for the attainment of a full 
and matured life. All thinking is initially 
wrong which does not begin with the unique 
holiness of the Lord, and which does not reserve 
for Him a supreme and sovereign place in man’s 
redemption. And that, too, is the severest 
indictment of spiritualism. It has little or 
nothing to do with the Lord. It concerns itself 
with meaner folk, with smaller themes, and with 
trivial communion. Who ever heard of a 
spiritualistic campaign for the reclamation of 
the lost? That’s where its sense is dull. 
“Saviour!” That’s where the vision is dim. 
We must bring all teachings, and all ministries 
to the touchstone of our exalted Lord and 
Saviour. What do they do with Him? What 
think they of Christ? We must suspect any- 
thing and everything which lays Him under 
eclipse. Do they deny the Lord that bought 
us? Do they dim His glory, and rank Him in 
the indiscriminate crowd? Then we must label 
them as “destructive heresies,” whose forces 
can never achieve the redemption of human- 
kind. 


CHAPTER I. 1 295 


What, then, shall we pray for ourselves and 
for others? First of all we will pray that we 
may never lose sight of the heights of the 
Divine holiness! Weare told that they, who 
dwell beneath great domes, acquire a certain 
loftiness and stateliness of bearing which dis- 
tinguishes them from their fellows. Let us 
pray that about our brethren and ourselves 
there may be a mystic significance, a breadth 
and height of character, a nobility of life, 
telling of the sublime abode in which we dwell. 
May we dwell in the truth, live and move in 
the truth, and by no perilous emphasis of minor 
themes and things deny the Lord that bought us. 


WORSE THAN THE FIRST 


1 PETER ii. 20, 21 


For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the 
world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the 
last state is become worse with them than the first. For it 
were better for them not to have known the way of righteous- 
ness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy 
commandment delivered unto them. 


Verse 20‘ The last state is become worse with them than 
the first.’ Apostasy is worse than ignorance! 
It were better for us never to have come within 
sight of the Kingdom, and to have remained 
in ignorance of its privileges and glory, than, 
having entered the gate, to become rebels to 
its sovereignty, and to turn our backs upon its 
contemplated ministries of grace. To approach 
the Divine is an unspeakable favour; it is also 
an appalling responsibility. Light that is trifled 
with becomes lightning; the splendour of the 
great white throne becomes a “ consuming fire.” 
To have known, and then to rebel, translates 
our very knowledge into a minister of destruc- 


tion. The abuse of the highest degrades us 
296 


CHAPTER IL. 20, 21 297 


beneath the lowest. “The first shall be last.” 
“The last is become worse with them than the 
first.” “ Lilies that fester smell far worse than 
weeds.” Here, in the apostle’s words, we have 
depicted for us the rise and fall of a soul. 
There is the realisation of moral deliverance: 
“they have escaped the defilements of the world 
through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ.” There is the subsequent moral 
relapse: ‘‘they are again entangled therein and 
overcome.” And there is the consequent de- 
terioration in the moral and spiritual capital 
of the life: “the last state is become worse with 
them than the first.” 

The realisation of moral deliverance. “They 
have escaped the defilements of the world.” 
What is this ‘“defilement” of the world in 
which these souls have been imprisoned? Who 
can define it? Who can lay hold of this subtle 
and varying corruption, and give it an inter- 
pretative name? Its metamorphoses are extra- 
ordinary. It has a hundred different guises, 
changing its attire continually, but amid all its 
shifting appearances it remains essentially the 
same. You have the same essential elements 
in solid ice, in flowing water, in hissing steam, 
in wreathing vapour, in moving cloud. In all 
the multiplex forms you have the same essence: 
the reality abides; it is only a change of attire. 


Verse 20 


298 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


You can have the same poison in varying pre- © 
parations, mingling with different compounds, 
appearing in diverse colours, and confined within 
dissimilar flasks. The incidentals are many, the 
poisonous essence is one and the same. And 
so it is with this “corruption” of the world; 
it pervades different sets of circumstances; it 
enshrines itself in different compositions, but 
everywhere and anywhere it is the same de- 
structive minister. It is the same in White- 
chapel and Belgravia, in the House of Commons 
and on a racecourse, in the King’s palace and 
the peasant’s hut, in the Church and on the 
Exchange. You may have “the defilements of 
the world” palpable and gross, and you may 
have them tenuous and refined. They may be 
rank and offensive as “the lust of the flesh”; 
they may be rare and vain and elusive as “the 
pride of life.” Yes, many forms, but one spirit! 
“ The fashion of this world passeth away.” The 
“ fashion ” changes; the thing itself abides. 
“The defilements of the world.” Every age 
seems to have its own characteristic corruption, 
its own destructive, worldly form and colour. 
When St. Anthony went out into the Egyptian 
desert as a protest and safeguard against the 
corruption of his time, it was a different form 
of worldliness to that which encountered St. 
Benedict in a succeeding century, and which 


CHAPTER II. 20, 21 299 


drove him to found his great Monastic Order ; 
and the worldliness against which St. Benedict 
contended differed from the corruption which 
surrounded St. Francis when, at a later day, he 
established the Order of the Mendicant Friars. 
All these forms of monasticism fought the same 
essential corruption, but it appeared here in 
the shape of a decaying individualism, and there 
in the shape of social and political dissolution, 
and yonder in the shape of a proud and luxurious 
Church. “The fashion of this world passeth 
away.” How different is the worldliness which 
forced the Salvation Army into existence from 
the worldliness which prevailed at the time of 
the evangelical revival! John Wesley and 
General Booth looked out upon quite different 
conditions, but the difference was only in the 
shape of the flask and the colour of the com- 
pound; the essential adversary was the same. 
The corruption of our own day wears a different 
guise from the corruption of twenty-five years 
ago. It has transferred itself to other spheres, 
and has pervaded new sets of relationships, and 
you have to look for it in new attire. The 
fashion changes; the pollution abides! Behind 
all the shiftings of the centuries the defilement 
persists, and it manifests itself in a mode of 
thinking, a mode of working, and a mode of 
living which is essentially anti-Christian.- It 


300 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


is the anti-Christian drift in the life of a 
generation which constitutes its pollution, and 
such drift may be found with equal certainty 
in Mayfair and the Seven Dials. It is a subtle 
spirit, now enshrining itself in an individual, 
now in a society, now in a Parliament, now 
in literature, now in art, now-in the acquisi- 
tion of treasure, now in the apportioning of 
leisure, in a hundred different vestures, but 
remaining always the anti-Christian drift, and- 
ever degrading its victims into Christian 
negations. 

Now this “defilement of the world” is an 
infection, and propagates itself like a foul 
contagion. It is a significant and suggestive 
thing that the word which our version translates 
by “ defilements” is our English word “ miasma.” 
It is the suggestion of the process by which 
the corruption works. “The miasma of the 
world!” And what is a miasma? Medical 
science has a synonym for the word which gives 
us much enlightenment. ‘Aerial poison!” A 
miasma is an aerial poison, an emanation or 
effluvia rising from the ground and floating in 
the air. ‘The miasma of the world.” It is 
pervasive as an aerial poison, it distributes itself 
like a destructive contagion. Let an unclean 
miasma, some foul immorality, infest one lad in 
a public school, and the school will seek its 


CHAPTER II. 20; 21 301 


own security by his immediate expulsion. One 
polluted lad can infect a thousand. “The 
miasma of the world.” We know the workings 
of the principle in social clubs. It is amazing 
how soon the miasma can pollute a society. It 
has happened before now that one man has 
degraded a social fellowship, and has created a 
malaria which pure men have refused to breathe. 
What has happened in smaller communities has 
also prevailed in civic fellowships and in the 
larger life of the State. “ Evil communications 
corrupt good manners.” Sometimes we can 
withdraw ourselves from an evil contagion, and 
our withdrawal may tend-to destroy it by 
neglect. But we cannot altogether get away 
from “the miasma of the world.” We are in 
the world, and the air is infected, and we have 
got to breathe it. How then? 

There is a way of escape. “They have 
escaped the miasma of the world.” We can be 
rendered immune, as medical science can make 
us immune in the presence of some particular 
contagion. “I pray not that Thou shouldest 
take them out of the world,” but that Thou 
shouldest make them immune—“that Thou 
shouldest keep them from the evil.” Regard 
it or disregard it as we may, this is the claim 
of the real Christian science, the promise of the 
Gospel of Christ: “If they drink any deadly 


3802 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


thing it shall not hurt them.” It is possible for 
a man to move amid the prevailing miasma of 
his day, to live and move and have his being in 
its very presence, and yet to remain in robust 
moral health. Now, mark you, this moral 
deliverance is attained through a spiritual 
fellowship. “They have escaped the defilements 
Verse 20 of the world through the knowledge of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ.’ An escape from the 
miasma by the “ knowledge” of a Person! But 
that word ‘“‘ knowledge” implies infinitely more 
than mental conception. It is the “ knowledge” 
which implies acquaintance, intimacy, com- 
munion, community. I should not be doing 
violence to the meaning of my text if I were 
to read it in this wise: “They have escaped 
the miasma of the world through the partnership 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” It is a 
“knowledge ” which implies a league, a covenant, 
a “partaking of the Divine nature”; and 
through this marvellous union there flows into 
human-kind a river of regenerating energy, 
reinforcing our miserable weakness, and endow- 
ing us with all the resistances of imvincible 
health. Our Lord makes us immune to the 
miasma of the world by communicating to us 
His own victorious virtue, and by making us 
sublimely positive to all the assaults and nega- 
tions of the devil. “He restoreth my soul,” 


CHAPTER II. 20, 21 303 


“Thou shalt not be afraid of the pestilence that 
walketh in darkness.” “I will fear no ill,’ ’ 
Such is the way of escape. 

But now the apostle unfolds a dark sequence. 
The moral deliverance may be followed by a 
moral relapse. “They are again entangled Verse 2 
therein and overcome.” Need I say that this 
immoral alliance is occasioned by the breaking 
of the spiritual alliance? Our spiritual attach- 
ment endows us with a powerful antidote and 
antagonism to the miasma of the world. Relax 
the attachment and you weaken the antidote. 
Sever your spiritual communion and you im- 
poverish your moral defence. It is a sequence 
which is illustrated every day in multitudes of 
lives. Maintain your alliance with the Lord, 
and you are secure in a health which keeps 
your enemy at the gate. Let your alliance 
become loose, and your moral repulsion grows 
faint. I offer no argument to prove it; the 
proof is found in common experience. “ Demas 
hath forsaken me, having loved this present 
evil world.” Yes, but before Demas had for- 
saken Paul, he had broken with the Lord, and 
then he swung back in mighty drift towards 
the world. When he had wilfully rejected the 
help of the heavenly energy, he succumbed to 
the gravitation of the world. He was no longer 
immune, and the miasma subdued him in the 


304 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


common defilement. How suggestive are the 
words in which the apostle describes the re- 
Verse 20 lapse: “ They are again entangled.” They begin 
to move towards the world, and presently they 
become involved. It is a figure of this kind: 
they go too near the destructive machinery ; 
they go in a prying curiosity, and they are 
caught by a sleeve, and are undone! ‘“ They 
are again entangled.” Ah, it is by our loose- 
nesses that we are caught and involved! When 
we leave our Lord our thought becomes loose, 
we exercise too much freedom of thinking; and 
some loose end becomes entangled, and we are 
“overcome.” When we leave our Lord our 
speech becomes loose; we say what we like and 
not what we ought; and some loose phrase 
gets entangled and we are “overcome.” When 
we leave our Lord our affections become loose ; 
deserting the great Lover we flirt with the 
world: “I will go after my lovers.” We become 
“lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God,” — 
and we are speedily involved and undone. Im- 
mediately we begin to weaken our alliance 
with the Lord we begin to re-establish our 
communion with the world. The re-establish- 
ment of the immoral alliance may begin in 
apparently trifling flirtations, but it speedily 
issues in a dark enslavement. When you wish 
to moor a big boat to a pier, you first throw 


CHAPTER II. 20, 21 305 


across the intervening gulf a light line, 
Gulliver’s bondage in Lilliput began in the 
binding down of a single hair! And our light 
flirtations with the defiled world, the yielding of 
a hair here anda hair there to its playful caress, 
will lead to an eventual entanglement which will 
make the soul the bond-slave of pollution. To 
trifle with the world is to play with the plague. 
“They are again entangled and overcome.” 

And what is the moral status of the back- 
slider? ‘“ The last state is become worse with them Verse 20 
than the first.” Here is a man who has had 
intimacy with the Lord. By the strength of 
the holy partnership he has been kept inviolate, 
and ‘‘no plague has come nigh his dwelling.” 
He dissolves the partnership; he opens up a 
lost communion; he turns like “a dog to his 
vomit,” and “a sow to the mire,” and the ap- 
palling issue is this, that “it were better had he 
never known the way of righteousness,” and the 
last state of the man is worse than the first! 
How is he worse? In spiritual apprehension. 
His sense of God is tremendously abused, and 
he has not the same receptive organ to the 
Divine that he had when first he sought the 
Lord. He has not the same appreciation of 
grace, the same craving for forgiveness, the 
same hunger for holiness, the same longing for 
home! How is he worse? In moral dis- 


20 


306 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


crimination. His moral palate is not as sensitive 
as when he first surrendered his life to the King. 
His mouth is harder! He can swallow iniquity 
neat. How is he worse? In the poverty of his 
emotional force. The fundamental energies of 
the life are sluggish or dead, the love-force, the 
hope-force, the faith-force, the ultimate momenta 
which constitute the wealth and dignity of man. 
How is he worse? Because he does not know 
he is worse! “Thou sayest I am rich, and have 
gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and 
knowest not that thou art the wretched one and 
miserable and poor and blind and naked!” “The 
last state of that man is worse than the first.” 
Can such a man be recovered? Oh yes! 
Backsliders may be converted and recovered. 
“He is able to save unto the uttermost!” “T 
will recover thee of thy backsliding.” “All 
things are possible to him that believeth.” 


Though earth and hell the word gainsay, 
The word of God can never fail : 

The Lamb shall take my sins away, 
"Tis certain, though impossible : 

The thing impossible shall be, 

All things are possible to me. 


All things are possible to God, 
To Christ, the power of God in man, 
To men, when I am all renewed, 
When I in Christ am formed again, 
And when, from all sin set free, 
All things are possible to me. 


THE LEISURELINESS OF GOD. 


2 PETER iii. 3, 4, 8, 9. 


Mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own 
lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His presence?... 
One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years as one day. The Lord ts not slack concern- 
ing His promise, as some count slackness ; but is longsuffering 
to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that 
all should come to repentance. 

““ Where is the promise of His presence?” Where Verse 4 
are the signs of the King’s presence and 
ministry ? Where are the prints of His goings ? 
Show us the proofs of His interposition, the 
evidences of His revolutionary and transforming~ 
work! Reveal to us the witness of His -handi- 
work, or at any rate let us see and touch the 

hem of His garment! ‘“ Where is the promise 

of His presence?” Itis the uproarious cry of 

the mockers, “walking after their own lusts.” Verse 3 
They are proclaiming the heedlessness of the 
Almighty; “The Lord God is not moving, with 
attentive ministry, along the ways of men! He 

is far away, in the boundless hunting-ground of 
space, engaged with larger prey!” 

307 


808 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


“‘ Where is the promise of His presence?” It 
is not only the shout of the scoffer, it is the low, 
poignant cry of the devout. The voices in this 
Book are many and manifold. You can hear the 
loud, laughing jeer of the mocker, rismg in 
the very midst of prophecy and psalm: and you 
can you hear the wail of the perplexed, like a 
low, long moan of pain. “ How long wilt Thou 
forget me, O Lord?” “Lord, how long wilt 
Thou look on?” “How long, O Lord, how 
long?” The defiant and reckless scorn, and the 
agonising doubt, concern themselves with one 
thing—the apparent heedlessness of God. 

What, then, isthe problem? Itisthis. Men 
are confronted with an apparently undiscriminat 
ing and wuncompassionating juggernaut. No 
hand seems to be busy in human affairs engaged 
in just and discerning judgment. There is no 
selection determined by moral worth. The vast 
movement is blind and capricious. The gigantic 
machine staggers along, like some untended 
traction engine, and its huge, grinding wheels 
bruise and break all things into a common mass, 
stones and little children, the wasteful and the 
useful, the sinner and the saint. 

Let me read to you a short passage from one 
of the most delicate and sensitive of our present- 
day writers, who thus expresses a part of this 
sharp and burdensome problem: “ Last summer, 


CHAPTER III. 3, 4, 8 9 309 


as I walked in my garden, I heard a fledgeling 
sparrow chirruping merrily under a bush. Pos- 
sibly he had by accident dropped out of his 
nest, and, by making parachutes of his wings, 
had so broken his fall as to reach ground 
without taking hurt, and was now in a flutter, 
between pride and fear, at his own daring. For 
a few minutes I watched him rufflmg it as 
roguishly as a robin, now cocking his glossy 
head at a sprawling worm, now stropping his 
tiny beak, razor-wise, upon a twig, and twitter- 
ing lustily meanwhile for very joy of his freedom 
and of his merry youth and of the summer 
morning. . . . I insinuated myself into my 
hammock, and with my fingers between the 
pages of a book, lay a-swing in the sunshine as 
in the centre of a golden globe. For a time I 
forgot both book and bird. Then suddenly my 
golden globe shattered into darkness at a sound 
—a mere thimbleful of sound—a scream of 
terror and agony, so tiny and yet so haunting 
and so horrible, that I seem to hear it even now. 
A tame rook that has the run of my garden had 
pinned the sparrow, breast upward, under his 
talons, and, as I looked, was stabbing the life 
out of him with iron beak. For that wee bird 
no happy warbling among the leaves: no 
happier rearing of his young. .. . The sight of 
that helpless nestling, done to death in the June 


310 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


sunshine, and by one of his feathered kin, turned 
me sick and faint with horror.” ‘“ Where is the 
promise of His presence?” 

I had just written these words when an urgent 
letter was placed upon my desk. Ipaused in my 
work to open and read it, and this sentence gave / 
its crimson hue to deepen the colour of my page: — 
“We have had another physician to see her, and — 
he pronounces the disease to be cancer.” The 
victim is an incarnate angel, who has moved 
along the hard roads of life with all the sweeten- 
ing and reviving ministry of a perfume. Her 
life has been a daily death; she has acquired 
only that she might give again, she has spent 
herself in order that by the energy of sacrificial 
blood others might be made alive. And now, 
cancer! “We have had another physician to 
see her, and he pronounces the disease to be 
cancer.” That cancer should have come to her! 
“ Where is the promise of His presence?” 

The same morning I had read these words in 
my daily paper: “The 6th Company of the 
23rd Siberian Regiment reached the summit, 
and rushed in the Japanese defences. They 
were, however, received with fixed bayonets, the 
captain being lifted into the air by several 
Japanese on the points of their weapons. The 
rest of the company all perished before the 
companies following could get up. This is the 


CHAPTER IIL. 3, 4, 8, 9 311 


tenth day such a butchery has been going on. 
The Turkish War was a joke to this! Over 
all this vast field of action, an area of thirty 
miles, the ground is strewn with the dead, and 
tens of thousands of human wrecks are being 
carried south and north from this unexampled 
battlefield.” Let that gory record add its quota 
to the already deeply dyed and troubled page. 
“ Where is the promise of His presence?” 

And that is not all. The difficulty is accen- 
tuated when one turns from the victims to some 
of those who apparently escape. Notoriously 
bad men are housed in comfort, and useless 
women are clothed in silks and satins, and walk 
the sunny side of the way. Dishonesty sweeps 
by in the carriage, while integrity creeps foot- 
sore by the kerb. “Fools ride on horseback, 
while princes walk by their side.” The sleep of 
the beast is untroubled, while the saint moans 
through the night in pain. The contrasts are 
apparently appalling, and fortune does not 
favour the brave! ‘“ Whereis the promise of His 
presence?” 

What shall we say to these things? Let 
us say, first of all, that we are very ignorant, 
that our eyes are only endowed with short 
range, and that our knowledge has severe and 
almost immediate limitations. Do not let us 
regard our uncertain guessings as final judg- 


312 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


ments. Let us admit the mystery, and cease 
our bitter dogmatisms until the mist has rolled 
away. Howlittlewe know! That little fledgling, 
done to death by the rook, how little we know 
about him! The dropping from the nest, his 
little chirp, his material equipment, the scream 
and ...we know nomore! “If God saw fit,” — 
says our literary friend, “to set that little creature 
singing in the green groves of Paradise (and who 
dare say that God has no place in His universe 
for the sparrow, that God Himself has told us is 
evermore within His care!), if God saw fit, at 
the cost of a moment’s pain, to take His bird— 
where danger shall menace never more, what is 
that to you?” Ourrange of vision is ineffective, 
and we haven’t the evidence to justify a harsh 
and bitter verdict. 

My cancer-stricken friend, how little I know 
about her! And sometimes in my thinking I 
do not include all the little I know. I called her 
“victim”; the strange thing is that she would 
never use the word about herself, and her 
thoughts about herself are part of the case. I 
refuse to allow any verdict upon her which takes 
no account of her peace, and resignation, and 
deep and unsmitten faith. I can hold no parley 
with judges who keep their eyes glued upon the 
corroding disease, and pay no regard to her long 
and radiant vista of immortal hope. I say that 


CHAPTER III. 3, 4, 8 9 313 


the “‘ victim’s ” assurance is part of the problem, 
and must not be ignored in the verdict. 

The fact of the matter is, our thoughts are 
moving upon an altogether inadequate scale. 
That is the teaching of this chapter to troubled 
and doubt-stricken men. ‘ One day is with the Verse 8 
Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years 
as one day.” We are not thinking on a suffi- 
ciently adequate scale: our thoughts cannot 
wrap themselves about the entirety of the place. 
We know what ministry an enlarged scale 
accomplishes even for some of the smaller 
things which lie in the term of human years. 
A thing looked at in the scale of one day is 
quite a different matter when set in the scale 
of seventy years. The scale of one day 
obscures purpose and tendency, and veils “the 
far-off interest of tears.’ I lately read some 
extracts from a printed diary, and I would like 
to read you a part of them. The first is from 
the diary of a boy, and I will give it just as 
it appears.* “TI cannot pretend to like this 
school, however much I try. The head is a 
beast, and not one of the under masters is 
a decent chap. I hate being kept in after 
hours when the other fellows are going out 
to games, yet, whenever I haven’t done a 
lesson right they make me do it until I know 

* Blake’s A Reasonable View of Life. 


314 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


it thoroughly. This is constantly the case 
with my Latin. Also I do loathe the food they 
give us; we have to eat fat and lean together, 
and fat is beastly. Also, however cold it is, 
we have to take long runs when it would be 
much nicer to sit by the fire and be comfortable. 
Also I can’t understand my father and mother, 
who say they love me and all that, ae 
me to such a place.” 

Just fifty years later the same hand wrote 
these words, when the writer’s name was known 
throughout the world. “Of my many advan- 
tages in early life, I place easily first my 
parents, whose particular method of training 
me was beyond all praise. . . . In looking back 
upon my first school, I can think of it only 
with affection, for the manner in which the 
masters treated my inert tendency of character 
was entirely admirable. To their insistence at 
that period I owe one of the keenest delights 
of my maturer years, a love for the Latin 
authors. ... In the matter of physical sound- 
ness, also, I am certainly much indebted to the 
school runs, which were compulsory, and to the 
wholesome and sensible diet on which we were 
fed, without which I should not possess to-day 
the virility which has kept me free from 
disease to a quite unusual extent.” Need I 
point the moral of the contrasts? The boy’s 


CHAPTER Til. 3, 4,89 315 


entry enshrines a verdict fashioned upon the 
scale of a day: the man’s entry declares a 
judgment fashioned to the scale of fifty years. 
It is all a matter of scale! “One day is with 
the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day.” In things of the day He 
has in view the thousand years; the thousand 
years being the full maturing of the designs 
that moulded the little day. ‘ Where is the 
promise of His presence?” Think upon the 
scale of a thousand years. 

But in the chapter before us the mocker’s 
scorn primarily concerns the heedlessness of 
God in the face of human sin. They are happy 
and untroubled in their lust! The jeer is this, 
that God is heedless of sin or virtue, and that 
there are no signs of discriminating judgment 
between the open sinner and the professed 
saint. Is God heedless about sin? ‘“ Where 
is the promise of His presence?” Are there 
any signs of His whereabouts? Let us ask 
ourselves this searching question—how do 
things trend? Is God heedless concerning sin ? 
To what tribunal can we make our appeal? 
We can appeal to the testimony of the purest 
instincts. We can appeal to the witness of 
personal experience. We can appeal to the 
proclamation of the Christian Scriptures. And 
what is their united teaching? It is this—that 


316 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


there is nothing more sure than “the ever- 
lasting burnings.” I do not refer to some 
remote and unseen hell, the appointed destiny 
of an impenitent race. I refer to a present 
conflagration, the everlasting burning, in which 
the sinner is even now being inevitably con- 
‘sumed. I say that instinct and experience 
agree in this, that sin has to encounter an 
unavoidable Nemesis, and that wrong moves 
on to certain destruction. Our proverbial 
lore, the findings and expressions of the com- 
mon life, gives emphatic utterance to the same 


truth. ‘A man’s chickens come home to 
roost.” ‘The whirligig of time brings round 
its revenges.” “Sin doesn’t pay in the long 
run.’ What the proverb declares, our ex- 


periences confirm. There is not a single sinner 
in this town to-day who is not, even now, in 
“the devouring fire,” “‘ the everlasting burnings.” 
You say that some of them seem very happy 
in the fire! Yes, they do, but don’t you see 
that their happiness is not a disproof, but the ~ 
very proof of the conflagration. Degradation 
is penalty. Loss of fine perception is penalty. 
The destruction of the coronal powers is 
penalty. Is it no sign of horrible judgment 
that a man is satisfied with the pleasures of 
the kitchen, when the oratory of his life is 
ablaze? This is the plane of true and cogent, 


CHAPTER Ill. 3, 4, 8, 9 317 


reasoning; manhood maimed is manhood 
penalised. That men are contented to be as 
pigs in the mire is the clearest evidence that 
their crowns and dignities have been burnt 
away. In the early stages of their sin men 
are conscious of their loss, and they busy 
themselves in fashioning counterfeits. They 
employ divers kinds of religious cosmetics. 
They strive and strive to “keep up appear- 
ances” even when the internal treasure is 
destroyed! My God! no judgment in the world ? 
No Nemesis? No fire? Is not this a most 
awful judgment, more awful than any other, 
that when the very virtues of a man are con- 
sumed away, he should move about in self- 
satisfaction, wearing a hollow and _ painted 
pretence? You want to see visible lightning 
appear and strike him! Our God uses the 
ministry of a more secret consumption. “ Our 
God is a consuming fire.” 

As it is with individuals so it is with peoples. 
Judgment haunts the footsteps of the sinful 
state. We can trace the decline and fall of 
Rome. We can track it step by step through 
increased idleness, through demoralising em- 
ployment, through heated sensuality, through 
the decline of agricultural pursuits, through 
the lapse of military virtue, on through all to 
Imperial perdition, There are grave and sober- 


s 


318 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


minded men who are beginning to think that 
Nemesis is revealing a visible hand in the 
Russia of to-day. As for Britain, let her 
remember that, whatever adhesion may be 
found in material and commercial communion, 
it is not in these things that she will find the 
cement of an enduring and indestructible empire. 
“Righteousness alone exalteth a nation.” In 
men and in peoples we may be sure that our 
sin will find us out. All sin works towards 
decline, insipidity, impotence, and night. Of 
all sad spectacles, the saddest is the spectacle 
of the candle smouldering out in an ill-spent 
life! ‘Remember now thy Creator in the days 
of thy youth, ere the evil days come,” the 
insipid, burnt-out days, ‘‘ when thou shalt say, 
I have no pleasure in them.” 

And yet, after all, God does appear leisurely. 
Why does He not hasten His goings? Why 
are not sin and perdition more closely joined ? 
Why does He move at such a leisurely pace ? 

Verse9 Why is He so slack? Listen. “The Lord is 
not slack concerning His promise, as some count 
slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, 
not wishing that any should perish, but that 
all should come to repentance.” “ Not slack, 
as some count slackness,”’ not impotent, not 
indifferent, not unwillmg to perform. What 
then rf “ But is longsuffering toward you.” It 


CHAPTER III. 3, 4, 8, 9 319 


is the leisureliness, not of heedlessness, but of 
mercy. Our God is “slow to wrath”; it is a 
slow fire, slow in order that we may have 
opportunity to repent. God’s judgment on sin 
could have been appallingly swift and final. 
He might have ordained that one revolt should 
incur the paralysis of the will and the ruin of 
the life. And what would have been the effect ? 
That we should have moved in a trembling 
terror, and though we might have been virtuous 
we should never have been free. The lowest 
motive would have operated in the soul, and 
the lowest motive can never produce the highest 
life. Some graces would never have ripened; 
we might have been pure, we could never have 
been genial and sweet. And so our Lord is 
apparently “slack”; He is “slow to wrath”; 
and by the very slowness He gives to us a 
gracious opportunity for reflection, a chance 
for the awaking of the affections, and room for 
the ministry of repentance. The far-off 
psalmist had discerned the secret of the Lord 
when he said: “Therefore will the Lord wait 
that He may be gracious unto you.” “The Lord 
is not slack . .. as some count slackness; 
but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing 
that any should perish, but that all should 
come to repentance.” Let us give thanks at 
the remembrance of God’s leisureliness! 
¢ 


320 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


How have I Thy Spirit grieved 
Since first with me He strove, 
Obstinately disbelieved, 
And trampled on Thy love! 
I have sinned against the light ; 
I have broke from Thy embrace, 
No, I would not, when I might 
Be freely saved by grace. 


After all that I have done 
To drive Thee from my heart! 
Still Thou wilt not leave Thine own, 
Thou wilt not yet depart. 
Wilt not give the sinner o’er; 
Ready art Thou now to save, 
Bidst me come, as heretofore, 
That I Thy life may have, 


PREPARING FOR THE JUDGMENT 


2 PETER iii. 10-14 


But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the 
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and 
the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the 
earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 
Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what 
manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and 
godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of 
the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire 
shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
heat? But, according to His promise, we look for new 
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, 
give diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot 
and blameless in His sight. 


“Seeing that ye look for these things.” What Verse 14 
things? Let us glance back at the descriptive 
record of the outlook. “The day of the Lord verse 10 
will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall 
pass away with a great noise, and the elements 
shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth 
and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 
Here is an apostle vividly anticipating an 
awful day of judgment. In that final judgment 
righteousness is to be triumphantly vindicated, 


321 3 | 


322 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


and iniquity is to be irrevocably overwhelmed. 
The coming of the day is sure; the time of its 
dawning is uncertain. It will assuredly come, 
but it will come as a thief! The affairs of all 
men are moving forward to consummation and 
crisis. There are details in the apostle’s out- 
look, the mere drapery of the expectation, 
which I do not profess to understand, and which 
I shall make no attempt to explain. But alto- 
gether apart from the mysterious vestures in 
which the judgment is clothed, there are three 
outstanding characteristics of this stupendous 
crisis in the history of the soul. The antici- 
pated judgment is to be a time of dissolution. 
“The heavens shall pass away with a great 
noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with 
a fervent heat, and the earth and the works that 
are therein shall be burned up.” With the 
material details in this description I am not 
now concerned. It is sufficient for me to'receive 
this cardinal impression: that the judgment is 
to be a season of convulsion, of upheaval, of 
exposure of foundations, of the dissolution and 
exhibition of the component parts of things. 
In that day it is to be revealed of what ele- 
mentary substance things and characters are 
made. And, secondly, the anticipated judgment 
is to be a time of discrimination. This out- 
ia das is to mark not merely a culmina- 


CHAPTER III 10-14 323 


tion, but a crisis. Things are to be analysed 
and tested, and judged by the pattern in the 
mount, and there is to be a separation of part 
from part, of character from character, of the 
healthy from the corrupt. “The wicked shall 
not stand in the judgment.” And, thirdly, it is 
to be a time of transformation. Out of the dis- 
solution and discrimination is to arise a changed 
world. ‘ According to His promise, we look for Verse 13 
new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness.” Out of the crisis is to be born 
a new morning, with new light and new atmo- 
sphere, and a new home, and a new spirit 
pervading all things. Such are the pre-eminent 
characteristics of this overwhelming event in 
which every earthly life is to culminate in the 
judgment presence of God. 

And now with this foreground of severe and 
sanctified expectancy, the apostle proclaims the 
following challenge: ‘“ Seeing that these things are Verse 11 
thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons 
ought ye to be?” How ought men to live in the 
face of a hereafter and a sure and awe-inspiring 
judgment? With that towering possibility con- 
fronting us, which to the apostle was a great 
and solemn certainty, with what kind of 
ambition ought we to direct and control our 
days? Let us mark the coolness and sanity 
of the apostle’s reply. For there is nothing 

+ 


324. THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


heated in his speech, nothing feverish, nothing 
sensational and fanatical. He does not tremble 
in paralysing fear; he does not maim his life by 
ascetical severities. Looking upon this super- 
lative event, his life is cool and calm, full-toned 
Verse 14and healthy. “ Seeing that ye look for these things, 
give diligence that ye may be found in peace, with- 
out spot and blameless in His sight.” That is not 
counsel for men in their decrepitude, when their 
evening time is come, and their sun is in the 
west, and the shout and struggle are over, and 
the fight and feast are done; it is counsel for 
life in its morning and its pride, counsel which 
seeks the creation of a rich and consecrated 
character, full-blooded and effective all along 
the changing way. If there be a judgment, as 
there will be, if there be a morrow of crisis, as 
there surely will, then in these robes we may 
meet it with eager and fearless face; “ In peace, 
without spot and blameless in His sight.” 
Now let us look a little more closely at those 
features of the character which will stand 
Verse 14 triumphant in the judgment. ‘“ Found im peace.” 
Let us once again rid ourselves of the common 
interpretation of peace. In the ordinary mind 
peace is synonymous with quietness and rest. 
We are walking up Ludgate Hill at noon, and 
we are jostled by the hurrying and perspiring 
crowd, and we turn from the hurrying multitudes 


CHAPTER III. 10-14 325 


into the cool quietness of St. Paul’s Cathedral,. 
and we are tempted to say to ourselves, How 
peaceful it is! Or we go into some little village 
church, hoary with the passage of many years, 
and with no sound disturbing the stillness 
except the occasional song of a bird which 
steals tenderly through the open window, and 
again we use the pregnant word, How peaceful! 
Or we go into the chamber of the dead, and 
we look at the body with the wrinkles wiped 
out, and the once-while weary limbs lying in 
undisturbed rest, and again we say, How peaceful 
itis! But these are not the symbols of Christian 
peace, however pertinently they may express 
the secret of stillness. Peace is not stillness, 
_but a certain kind of movement. It is move- 
ment without friction: cog works into cog with 
perfect and noiseless harmony: everything 
moves without jar, and there is no grit in the 
wheels. Peace is not the presence of noise, but 
the absence of discord. When we dig away to 
the very roots of the word we find its primary 
content is “perfect joining.” Nothing works 
out of its place. Everything moves in every- 
thing else with delightful confluence. And 
this is peace, and therefore peace is harmony ; 
itis the absence of the rebel, the extinction of 
strife. And so if there is to be peace in my 
life, all the powers in my life must co-operate 


326 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


without friction and move in harmony under 
the supreme control of the sovereign will of 
God. Here isa musical instrument, the organ. 
It is a very complex instrument, containing I 
know not how many hundred parts. And there 
is a movement in the organ known as ciphering. 
And what is ciphering ? It is the sounding of 
an organ-pipe, in consequence of some derange- 
ment or maladjustment, independently of the 
action of the player. Harmony is dependent 
upon the obedience of each note to the organist’s 
authority. If any note breaks out of its own 
accord, the harmony is broken, and we are the 
victims of jarring discord. Now every man’s 
individuality is like a complex organ. How 
manifold and varied are the component parts! 
And the harmony of the individual is dependent 
upon the co-operation of all his powers. And 
yet how frequently the harmony of the life is 
broken by the ciphering of a part! Some 
faculty is rebellious, and breaks away from 
the control of the will. How often the player 
upon the instrument has to confess, “I cannot 
control my temper!” or, “I cannot control 
my imagination!” or, “I cannot control my 
passions!” But there is this distinction between 
ourselves and the musical instrument. The 
organist at the keyboard has no control over 
the ciphering; it is independent of him, and 


CHAPTER Ill. 10-14 327 


works entirely away from his resources and 
his will. But the individual has resources at 
his disposal, offered to him by his Lord, 
resources found in the dynamics of grace, by 
which every faculty can be subjected to the 
holy purpose of our Lord. It is possible for 
the individual to be “found in peace,” and for 
“all that is within me ” to bless God’s holy name. 

Let us investigate a little more in detail this 
manifold organ of the individual self. There 
are my powers of body. These are to be “found 
in peace.” They are to work in harmony with 
one another, and under the control of the 
sovereign will of God, and they are to move as 
common subjects of the King. “ Present your 
bodies.” We must bring our basal energies 
to the Lord, and have these bodily forces 
subdued to the higher harmonies, like the 
profound notes of the organ that give body and 
fulness to its tender and sweetening strains. © 
“Tet the ape and tiger die,” sings Tennyson. 
But there is a better way. And the better 
way is to transform them. I do not want my 
passions annihilating ; I want them turning to 
useful force. I want the sword changed into 
a ploughshare, and the spear into a pruning- 
hook, and I want the beast at the base 
harnessed to the imperial and holy purpose of 
God. If a man consecrates “ the ape and tiger” 


328 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


to the Lord, and these are brought into 
obedience under the Lord’s control, the life 
will receive a tremendous driving-power, and 
every holy ambition will be pursued with almost 
violent zest. “I keep my body under,” says 
the Apostle Paul. “I allow no ciphering!” 
Every bodily desire is held in the leash, and 
all work together, and are “found in peace.” 
There are my powers of mind. We speak of - 
wandering thoughts, thoughts that are rebellious 
to the general dominion, and that steal away 
to forbidden fields. We have unrestrained 
imaginations, fancies that go off on their own 
charges and ask no question concerning the 
lands in which they roam. ‘Bring every 
thought into captivity to Christ.” It is possible 
for all our mental powers to be “found in 
peace.” We have more power over our 
thoughts than we frequently conceive. There 
is much reserve of authority which has not 
yet been exercised. We can refuse a thought 
expression, and that refusal enormously 
strengthens our self-control. “Give no unpro- 
portioned thought its act.” Make every 
thought bow down to Jesus before you give 
it utterance! But if we still find that our 
sovereignty is ineffective we can refer our 
weakness to the Spirit. We can take these 
rebel thoughts and imaginings, and we can 


CHAPTER III. 10-14 329 


say to the Holy Spirit, “These thoughts, my 
great Companion, are beyond me! I have no 
power to deal with them! I hand them over 
to thee!” And marvellous is the efficacy of 
the reference! Marvellous is the re-arranging 
of this disordered world, and the subjection of 
the mental chaos into harmony and peace. 

And there are my powers of soul. There are 
the superlative senses in my life. These also 
must be “found in peace.” Our sense of right 
must not be allowed to join the rebel forces of 
mere expediency. Our sense of the sublime 
must not be permitted to career after degrading 
superstitions. Our highest powers must pay 
obeisance in the holy place, and acknowledge 
in awed communion the holiness of the Lord. 
All this is peace, for this is harmony, the 
powers of body and of mind and of soul all 
co-operating in producing the music of the 
spheres, the melody which is well-pleasing unto 
God. And this is the character with which 
one can confidently meet the day of judgment. 
“Give diligence that ye may be found in 


peace.” 
Now turn to the second of the characteristics 
of the triumphant life: “found . . . without Verse 14 


spot.” Let us mark the significance of the 
word. It describes a life distressed by no 
infirmity and corrupted by no disease. It is 


330 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


neither lame nor defiled. Our God desires the 
entire life, and He resents a defective offering. 
He wants “a lamb witout spot.” None of our 
powers are to be made infirm by disease, and 
none are to be rendered diseased by abuse. Is 
not this a sane and reasonable teaching? 
Surely this man’s mind is in no degree im- 
paired by the spectacle of coming judgment! 
His ambition is to be - diligent—to present 
himself healthy, with every part of his being 
in working order. We may vary in the quality 
of our endowments, but there need be no 
variety in their purity. One man may have 
ten talents, and another man only one, but in 
both instances the life can be perfectly clean. 
One man’s endowment may be as that of a 
cathedral organ, while another may be common- 
place as an ordinary harmonium, but both can 
be kept in perfect purity, no part corrupted, 
and every part sounding out the obedient note. 
And the third characteristic of the triumphant 
character is described in the succeeding phrase, 
Verse 14 “‘ without blame.” Is that possible? I may get 
my body under, and I may succeed, by the 
grace of God, in freeing every part of my being 
from infirmity and disease, but is it within the 
bounds of possibility that I can stand in the 
judgment “without blame”? I think of my 
life. I retrace its steps. I mark its deliberate 


CHAPTER III. 10-14 331 


rebellions, its sins of selfishness and desire, its 
injustices in speech and deed, its disloyalties 
and secret treacheries. How can such a life 
ever be found “without blame”? And yet it 
is gloriously possible. It is the very evangel of 
grace that, on the day of judgment, men whose 
lives were once defiled can stand before the 
Almighty, and no word of blame or rebuke 
shall fall upon their ears. They shall come to 
judgment, but there shall be no condemnation. 
“There is therefore now no condemnation to 
them that are in Christ Jesus.” I saw a 
man a little while ago with the marks of 
his old rebellion still seated in his face; but 
behind that disfigured countenance there was 
the illuminating presence of the light of life, 
and that man shall stand in the judgment 
“without blame.” But this can only be possible 
when the life is lost “in Christ.” We are 
regarded and judged as being in Him. What 
He is we are, for as He is we shall one day 
assuredly become. “Our life is hid with Christ.” 
It may be only poor as yet, and the footprints 
of the beast may be scarcely erased from our 
life, but one day we are to be manifested in 
His beauty. It fills me with amazement that I, 
once a vagrant, and bearing about with me 
signs of my degeneracy, shall one day “walk 
in His likeness.” Yes, and those old days, 


332 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


those pitiably blighted days, are never to be 
named by Him in whose holy presence we are 
all to stand. “TI will remember them against 
thee no more for ever.” 

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in Thee. 

Here, then, is a great ambition—that on the 
awful day of unveiling we may thus be “found 
in peace, without spot, and blameless.” And 
see with what intensity this apostolic ambition 
is to be pursued. The apostle uses three very 

Verse 14 strenuous figures of speech. “ Be diligent.” It 
is again the favourite image of the business 
man. We are to pursue the riches of this 
finished character with all the ardour of an 
expert man of affairs. We are to be inventive 
.and earnest and prompt, buying up every oppor- 
tunity for moral and spiritual enrichment. 

Verse 17 ‘‘ Beware!’? And secondly we are to have all 
the vigilance of a custodian. Having got a 
pearl, I am to guard it as one of the crown 
jewels. “Hold fast that which thou hast; let 
no man take thy crown.” And thirdly, we 
are to “be stedfast.” We are to manifest the 
unshakeable and unshrinkable loyalty of a 
soldier at the post of duty. In seeking this 
glorified character we are to stand faithful at 
our post, ‘‘and having done all, to stand.” Go 
forward to the judgment, seeking peace and 


CHAPTER III. 10-14 333 


spotlessness and blamelessness with all the 
diligence of a business man, with all the vigil- 
ance of a watchman, and with all the daring 
obedience of a soldier on the field of battle. 
A life like that, hiding in Christ and always 
cherishing the Father’s business, need fear 
nothing that the morrow may bring. For that 
kind of life the judgment will have no terrors. 
If we live toward God we shall not fear to see 
Him. Nay, here is the apostle bold enough to 
use these very daring and exuberant words, 
“earnestly desiring the coming of that day.” 
It is the very music of this Epistle. “That 
day!” “At that day!” I say it is music to 
the apostle, as indeed it was music to the Apostle 
Paul, who gloried in “the crown of righteous- 
ness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall 
give me at that day, and not unto me only, but 
unto all them also that love His appearing.” 


GROWING IN GRACE 


2 PETER iii. 18 


Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. 


Ir these words, and indeed the nature and 
contents of all this wonderful chapter, were 
not penned by Simon Peter, they were com- 
posed by his “double” in the spirit. Their 
hearts are fashioned alike. The writer of this 
counsel has had Simon Peter’s experience, and 
he is possessed by Simon Peter’s penitence, and 
he shares Simon Peter’s trembling confidence 
and hope. If some firmly authenticated and 
altogether non-suspicious letter of the great 
apostle were to fall into my hands, this is the 
kind of matter, and this the manner, which I 
should expect in its intense and impetuous 
pages. I should expect much about pitfalls 
and snares, much about finely attired and spe- 
cious seductions, much about secret treachery, 
cowardly denial, and open revolt. I should 
expect strong and jubilant evangels, proclaim- 
ing the capacity of frail and fragile man to 
334 i 


CHAPTER III. 18 335 


become the loyal and bosom friend of God 
Almighty. I should expect glorious vistas of 
distant possibility, bright and alluring, the 
ultimate bourn of human life in fellowship 
with the Divine. All these I should expect 
from the hands and lips and heart of this great 
apostle—once impulsive, and cowardly, and dis- 
loyal, but now recovered, emboldened, glorified 
in the recreating power of the Holy Ghost. 
And they are all here, messages full of heart- 
ening, serious with warning, kindling with 
inspiration, and all of them culminating in this 
cheery word of sanctified Christian optimism, 
“ Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Yes, it is Simon 
Peter, or his “double,” the man who had the 
two-fold experience of weeping bitterly in the 
cold twilight of the betrayal morning, and of 
gazing, with hungry, loving eagerness into the 
reconciled countenance of the risen Lord. 
Well, here in my text there is suggested a 
marvellous dignity, the supreme prerogative 
and endowment of human-kind, our capacity 
to receive the Divine. “ Grow in the grace and 
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 
Let us humanise it. \To grow in a thing im- 
plies that I have the power to acquire it. 
Acquisition implies susceptibility, power of re- 
ception. When a man counsels me to grow, 


336 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


he suggests that I am in possession of a germ- 
inal aptitude, in the development of which the 
growth consists. ‘Grow in Art, and in the 
knowledge of the Masters of Art!” Such 
counsel implies that I possess initial artistic 
instincts, a certain elementary sensitiveness, 
which will respond to the revelations of each 
succeeding stage in the unfolding apocalypse 
of form and colour. If I am to grow in the 
grace and knowledge of Turner I must funda- 
mentally possess the primal instincts of which 
the ultimate Turner is made. Growth implies 
a germ, an initial bias or tendency, an original 
aptitude or gift. And if I am to “grow in the 
grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ,” the con- 
soling and inspiring suggestion is this, that I 
am not passive and ungifted like a splint from 
a planet, or a mineral in the mine, but that to 
me has been given an original capability, an 
innate possibility of holding commerce with the 
infinite God. We are fragments of Divinity! 
Here then, I start with this glorious and 
marvellous implication, that the children of men 
have the power to apprehend and to growingly 
appropriate the “things” of the Spirit of God. 
Let us look at the capacity. ‘Grow in grace.” 
We have the capacity to receive the Divine 
energy, to receive it more and more; to so grow 
in the appropriation of it that we are at last 


CHAPTER III. 18 337 


“filled with the fulness of God.” For Grace is 
an energy; it is the Divine energy; it is the 
energy of the Divine affection rolling abundantly 
to the shores of human need. Oh, it is this, 
and much more than this! Its manifold wealth 
eludes the span of human speed, and refuses to 
be defined. Grace is indefinable. Dr. Dale, 
with his strong hands and yet most exquisite 
touch, endeavoured to express its secret in a 
pregnant phrase, but he laid down his pen in 
despair. ‘‘Grace,” he says, “is love which 
passes beyond all claims to love. It is love 
which, after fulfilling the obligations imposed 
by law, has an unexhausted wealth of kindness.” 
Yes, it is all that; but when we have said all 
that, the half hath not been told. It reminds 
me of an experience in my life a little while 
ago. Some minister of the Cross, toiling in 
great loneliness, among a scattered and primitive 
people, and on the very fringe of dark primeval 
forests, sent me a little sample of his vast 
and wealthy environment. He sent it in an 
envelope. It was a bright and gaily-coloured 
wing of a native bird. The colour and life 
of trackless leagues sampled within the con- 
fines of an envelope! And when we have 
made a compact little phrase to enshrine the 
secret of grace, I feel that, however fair and 
radiant it may be, we have only got a wing 
22 


338 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


of a native bird, and bewildering stretches of 
wealth are untouched and unrevealed. No, we 
cannot define it. Who can define an Alp? We 
may describe the varying aspects of a mountain, 
some of its ever-changing moods; we can add 
feature to feature, characteristic to characteristic, - 
but we can never say that we have exhausted 
the significance of its wealthy face. And so it 
is with grace. We may have glimpses of its 
features and varying moods. Even when we can- 
not construe its ultimate secret, we may describe 
when we cannot define. Now that is just what 
the New Testament permits us todo. It gives 
us a glimpse here, and a glimpse there, and we 
can put bit to bit, feature to feature, until we 
are overwhelmed with the glory of the revelation 
of God’s redeeming grace! Let us put them 
together. Grace is energy. Grace is love- 
energy. Grace is a redeeming love-energy. 
Grace is a redeeming love-energy ministering to 
the unlovely, and endowing the unlovely with 
its own loveliness. Wherever I see grace at 
work in the Christian Scriptures it is ever a 
minister of purity, and joy, and song and peace. 
Cast your eyes over these! ‘ Where sin 
abounded, grace did much more abound.” Like 
as you have seen the shore littered with filth 
and refuse, and the infinite deep has rolled in, 
and gathered up the uncleanness into its own 


CHAPTER III. 18 339 


purifying flood! ‘We have good hope through 
grace.” Like as the light in the lighthouse 
burns clear and steadly through the night, 
because of the unfailing and carefully adminis- 
tered supplies of oil, so the light of a cheery 
optimism burns strong and calmly in the night 
of life, because of the unfailing supplies of 
grace! “Singing with grace in your hearts 
unto the Lord.” Didn’tI say that grace is the 
mother of song? Grace makes a light and 
nimble atmosphere ; the soul becomes buoyant, 
and breaks into music as instinctively as the 
bird sings in the soft airs of the dawn. 
All this is the work of the love-energy 
of the Eternal God, and the evangel is this, 
that to you and me is given the capacity to 
receive it, to grow in it, to appropriate it more 
and more, to more and more become its home. 
“He giveth grace for grace,” until every tissue 
and function in body, mind, and soulare saturated 
and sanctified in its redeeming ministry. “Grow 
in grace!” 

“ And in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ.” Then we have not only capacity 
to receive the Divine energy, but capacity to 
perceive the Divine character. Gifts of recep- 
tion are succeeded by gifts of perception. We 
are to “grow in knowledge” too. I heard a 
great Bible student say the other day—he is a 


340 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


man of most delicate spiritual insight, and has 
worked and walked with his Lord for many 
years—and he was speaking among a few familiar 
friends, and he said, “I feel as if I have only 
investigated a small garden-bed, and there’s a 
continent still before me!” Have we not all 
shared his feelings? Is there a minister worth 
his salt who, as his experience broadens and 
deepens, does not realise that he has only 
touched the hem of his Master’s garment, and that 
the more glorious intimacy is all before him? 
Yes, so far as the Lord Jesus is concerned 
we have all pottered about a little garden-bed, 
with a continent awaiting us. But do not 
let us be despondent or afraid. We must not 
measure ourselves by the size of the garden-bed, 
but by the possibilities of the continent. We 
are not scaled to the size of the garden-bed; we 
are scaled and endowed to the ultimate demands 
of the continent. “Now I know in part, but 
then shall I know even as also I am known!” 
The continent is to be as familiar to us 
as the garden-bed. We can “grow... in the 
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ.” Does not that sound continental, that 
great, all-comprehensive name—Lord—Saviour 
—Jesus—Christ? Into the secrets, the deep, 
bright mysteries of that most wonderful name 
we are to enter, little by little, and we are to 


CHAPTER III. 18 341 


apprehend and appreciate things which have 
been “hidden from the foundations of the 
world.” Our capacity may at present be infan- 
tile, but infantile capacity is real, and the 
undeveloped germ carries in its heart the 
promise and power of its own prime. Caliban 
may be dark and imprisoned in contrast with 
the enlightened and appreciative Paul, but 
Caliban is a Paul in embryo, and even Paul 
himself, while he walked the ways of time, had 
but the comprehension of a babe in comparison 
with many a poor peasant who had “left his 
native lea” and had awakened amid the unveiled 
secrets of the Eternal day. Yes, we can grow; 
‘it is our dignity and our privilege to grow; we 
can grow “in the knowledge of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ.” ‘‘ Now are we the sons 
of God,” aye, even now! And to what shall 
we grow? “It doth not yet appear what we 
shall be.” What then? ‘“ We know that when 
He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we 
shall see Him as He is.” For what superlative 
glories we are made! Let us even now wear 
our crowns as kings and queens. 

How, then, can we increase our capacity for 
God? How may we best “grow in grace and 
knowledge,” in the two-fold gifts of reception 
and perception? I only know three ways; but 
I think they are all-inclusive, and they would 


342 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


bring a man at length into “the measure of the 
fulness of the stature of Christ.’ You will not 
be surprised when I mention, as the first means 
of growth, the ministry of fervent prayer. That 
is an old counsel, almost threadbare by incessant 
reiteration, but we can no more ignore it than 
we can ignore the fresh air when we are 
reckoning up the conditions of physical health. 
When I speak of prayer I am thinking of a 
very active and businesslike thing. I think of 
something far more than speech; it is commerce 
with the Infinite. It is the sending out of 
aspiration, like the ascending angels in the 
patriarch’s dream ; it is the reception of inspira- 
tion, like the descending angels that brought to 
the weary pilgrim the life and light of God. 
When we pray, we must drink in, and drink 
deeply, quietly, consciously, deliberately, the very 
love-energy of the Eternal God. Marvellous 
is the ministry of that inspired and inspiring 
grace! Shall I tell you how I heard one man 
speak of another man a little while ago? 
The one of whom he spake had appeared weary 
and worn, and dark, tired lines were pencilled 
here and there upon his face. And this weary 
man knelt and prayed! “ And,’ said my friend, 
“when he rose from his knees, I saw for the 
first time the significance of Pentecost! The 
weariness had gone! The dark care-lines were 


CHAPTER Il. 18 343 


wiped out! His face was all aglow with a 
renewed flame! And I verily believe that if 
my own heart had been pure enough I should 
have seen a radiant nimbus enveloping his 
exalted head!” What had the weary man been 
doing on his knees? He had been growing in 
grace, and therefore in the knowledge of his 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

And the second means of growth is found 
in the ministry of honourable and consecrated 
labour. If we could not “grow in grace and 
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” while we 
earn our daily bread, life would be very largely 
a dark and fruitless waste. But if the hours of 
labour afford a congenial season for spiritual 
growth, then life presents a vast and glorious 
opportunity. It was while the Man of Nazareth 
was yet working at the carpenter’s bench that 
we are told “ He increased in wisdom and stature, 
and in favour with God and man.” “In favour” 
—our very present word “grace”: the love- 
energy-of the Eternal streamed into His soul 
while He engaged in the lowly toil of a humble 
village craftsman. The business of the little 
day was so done that at the same time it was 
commerce with the Infinite! Every business 
transaction was so scrupulously pure and 
honourable as to afford a dwelling-place for the 
Holy Spirit of the Eternal God! While He 


344 THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 


earned His daily bread He was drawing into 
His hungry heart the very bread of life. He 
and His Father were inseparable partners in 
the making of a household chair, or in the 
fashioning of a yoke for the ox of the field. Was 
not that, too, the restful boast of Stradivari? 


This is my fame— 

When any master holds, 
"Twixt chin and hand a violin of mine, 
He will be glad that Stradivari lived, 
Made violins, and made them of the best. 
The masters only know whose work is good: 
They will choose mine: and, while God gives 

them skill, 

I give them instruments to play upon, 

God choosing me to help Him. 


The man who goes out to his labour in the 
morning in that spirit, must and will grow 
in grace and knowledge, and he will find that 
the common path of duty is even now “close 
upon the shining tableland to which our God 
Himself is sun and moon.’ ’ 

And the third means of growth is to be found 
in the ministry of unselfish service. In the 
sphere of the spirit, expenditure is ever the 
condition of expansion. We get while we give. 
We grow while we serve. “He that would be 
great among you let him be your minister.” 
“He giveth grace to the humble.” Aye, it is 
along that path that we come upon the crown 


CHAPTER III. 18 345 


jewels of the King of Kings. “ He that loseth 
his life shall find it.” The man who goes out 
to serve his brother shall meet his God, and 
shall be partially transfigured into the Saviour’s 
likeness: he shall pass into ever richer acqui- 
sitions of grace, and he shall be taken into the 
deeper secrets of his Lord, 
















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